Indifference
by Missed Nin
Summary: The Kyuubi was sealed into the infant Nara Shikamaru. Twelve years later at the Chuunin exams, the lazy Genin meets Gaara, and finds his peaceful, passive life disrupted. Fights, plots, secrets, lies, demons, ninja! How troublesome... [COMPLETE!]
1. As it Begun

As far as I know, there are no AU stories where the person that the Kyuubi was sealed in stays with their actual family. I wanted to write one.

Naruto and all the characters and concepts thereof are the intellectual property of Kishimoto Masashi. Who I am not, so Naruto is not in any way shape or form mine. (Though I do own a bonsai tree called Naruto.)

* * *

**Indifference **

* * *

_Shikamaru could figure a lot of things out by thoughtful and detached analysis, but he would never be able to appreciate just how close he'd come to not being wanted._

* * *

His father, Shikaku, lost the use of his leg in the battle against the Demon Fox, and the horror he felt when he found out the fate of his newborn child overrode his Nara logic. For the five days he spent in the grim and overcrowded hospital he considered killing the – _creature_ – that his newborn son had been sacrificed to.

* * *

Nara Yoshino, new mother, wasn't formally discharged from the too-busy hospital; three hours after Nara Shikamaru's birth and before she could stand up with steady legs she was escorted – half-carried - home by an pitying nurse who nonetheless didn't want to look at or touch the baby. 

She was glad to leave, because even the maternity ward was overrun by shinobi wounded in fighting the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The Hidden Village's civilian population had been evacuated, and walking through the deserted streets was surreal. The whole situation was fucking surreal. She wasn't in any state to be left alone, but nor were all those dying defenders of their village, so she coped. Shifting her weight to hold the baby and open her door was the hardest thing she'd done since – well, _fuck_ - permitting Yondaime-sama to do what he needed to. Whatever. She opened the door and stood so the nurse couldn't get in. That little-girl nurse needed to go back. Help those wounded noble fuckers who had been no use whatsoever against that monster, but they were dying; just go! The nurse was young and scared to leave a desperate – doubtless irrational – woman alone. She was too young to have kids an maybe too young to go back to a building filled with people dying, too.

Yoshino refused to tell the girl that she herself was too young to let her baby boy be taken away by a desperate hero.

Yoshino shut the door on the worried nurse-girl in the end, and eventually the girl left and she slid down the door, faded out of consciousness for about thirty blissful seconds until her three-year-old daughter Rumiko appeared to see her new brother. So she sustained her effort to stay awake and if the kids heard her swear it hardly mattered in the long term.

* * *

On October the fourteenth, four days later, Yoshino brought the baby boy that they had been going to call Shikamaru to see his father in a makeshift hospital; the house of a dead family. They were in what had been the family's main room, and pictures of a broadly grinning boy in various stage of life looked down on them. Shikaku turned his head away from his visitors, unable to look at his wife or what he was trying to think of as _her_ _baby_. He met the photographic eyes of a proud mother; another picture showed the now-genin boy holding his baby sister. He cringed and looked down at his bedclothes, somewhat aware of the petulance of the gesture. 

The other occupants of the room were awkwardly silent, perhaps embarrassed, perhaps disgusted at the perversion of a domestic scene. Long moments passed, and Yoshino shifted the baby in her arms and bit out that _this was her child, Shikaku._

It took all her effort, but she walked home without meeting anyone's eyes in the now partly repopulated streets, and she didn't allow herself to stop or cry.

* * *

When Shikaku returned home the streets were nearly back to normal. He walked in awkwardly with a cane to find Rumiko playing with the baby and the old cot and toys removed from the loft. 

Shikaku didn't protest, but offered no signs of welcome to his son. He was grim and silent as he adjusted to life with one less limb, feeling Nara apathy sink dangerously towards depression as the village dragged itself back together into some semblance of functionality. He refused a place on the council, to the dismay of the reinstated Sandaime. He couldn't have taken it; he felt disgust at the puerile, petty gossiping of the village community. Crises were meant to draw people together, not divide them and provoke grabs to power or clannish elitism.

He, Chouza and Inoshi were supportive of each other in a way they hadn't been since they'd married; the Akimichi was likely to never quite recover from chakra-pathway burns and veered dangerously between weights without the ability to regulate his metabolism with chakra. Inoshi had become strangely austere, unreadable, as if he wanted to seem strong in the crisis. He did seem strong, to a certain extent; Inoshi firmly steered Shikato out of bars before he could fall into alcoholism. All three avoided mention of the others' problems.

He had avoided his household since the the attack on Konoha. Whenever he returned it seemed a chaotic mess, the baby dominated the house and Yoshino's attention. She had quit her job, and so he eventually, not discussing it with her, returned to the service of the village, classifying and assigning missions.

* * *

As Shikamaru learned to crawl, Shikaku's analytical intellegence began to return to him. For the first time, he noticed his wife's fragility, and the way she swore more nowadays and her habit of frowning defensively as she and her son faced the community had carved lines into her face. The way Inoshi's wife took the now four-year-old Rumiko to nursery for her, how apprehensive Yoshino had become. His wife had never been one for passivity, but his brooding lack of response had reduced her to a chagrined mood. He would have welcomed the end of her criticism, but now their silence sat awkwardly in the house. He began to help with housework, still leaving his wife as Shikamaru's sole carer. 

At the anniversary of the Kyuubi no Kitsune's fall, Shikaku didn't attend the memorial service. He sat hunched and broodingly in his favorite cloud-watching spot, noticing but not watching the memorial fires and the eerie lighting of the sunset, muffled through the clouds. He did not allow himself to recline, which let anyone who knew him tell that he was agitated. His profile was sharp; his thoughts fixated on one matter rather than following the meandering, nebulous patterns of the clouds.

* * *

When Shikaku returned to the house late on the night of October the 10th, Yoshino half expected him to be drunk in commemoration. While her husband's distance frustrated and hurt her, he undeniably had a case for seeing himself as wronged by fate. He seemed more able to carry on with life now, but his Nara passivity had transformed itself into a reticence that was almost unbreakable. Conversation in their house was between her and the children, suffocating and limited to the grown woman Yoshino was. 

She had been conscious of the division of their family since claiming Shikamaru as '_her'_ child. Calling him _'ours'_, she suspected, would have started an open argument, and she couldn't decide whether that would have been a good thing - offering an opportunity to resolve the issue – or whether it would have broken them both too far down. Broken down what was between them.

The Naras occupy the same space, she thought, but are nothing more than mutual inhabitants of it. Separate inhabitants of it. The idea of fault and blame haunted her, but there was no credible target for that. She was aware of herself as a brittle creature, constantly suppressing emotions and accusations that would damage her tenuous stability.

Shikaku's return was unannounced, but she had been awkwardly waiting for it, knowing that today would strain his tolerance. It strained hers.

She sat in the kitchen, where she had lingered since putting the children to bed. Having given up on make-work, she was drinking tea to justify her continued presence there as she heard the door open. The fact she had to strain to hear the movements following the door opening was a relief – being married to a shinobi, silent motion was familiar, loud signified loss of control. Only long proximity to him and this house let her notice the tell-tale noises.

She was surprised when he came to join her, pouring himself a cup of tea and refilling hers. He drank his own and poured himself another before speaking, his face outwardly placid.

"I knew from the start it would be unjust to hate Shikamaru."

She wasn't particularly surprised by his words, more so by the fact he was speaking to her. The didactic tone he used was one that was familiar to her – it meant he was informing someone of a measured conclusion. It was a tone he used to report facts, not to discuss them.

"I tolerated him. I should... do more than that. And I owe Rumiko more than that. I'll try." The tone of his voice didn't remain artifical, and she could see the effort the statement took.

As proclamations went, it lacked something. But it was at that moment the separate inhabitants of the Nara household began to bring their paths together again.


	2. Continued Existence

_Over the years, Shikamaru had become familiar with Ino's mum's shop. He knew well that visitors to the Yamanaka flower shop would pamper and pet a 'cute little Ino-chan', while giving him dark looks and avoiding him. Even when the children were too young to consider the reasons for this behaviour, Ino would dodge the hands of any shoppers that reached for her and move to his side. Shikamaru was more touched by this than he'd be willing to say, but Ino avoided his gratitude and complained louder than she would have otherwise about how annoying the attention was._

_Shikamaru preferred it when they stayed at Chouji's house, and he liked being left alone in the Nara fields most of all._

* * *

Yamanaka Yukako had been apprehensive about looking after the second Nara child, but years of friendship with the other woman had lead her to trust Yoshino's judgement, and Rumiko-chan seemed enamored of her younger brother. He couldn't be that bad. She'd quickly found that the boy was much easier to look after than her own Ino-chan, who was three months older and remained much more restless than Shikamaru throughout their childhood. 

Indeed, Shikamaru looked normal enough. The three parallel lines that run from his cheeks to the edge of his jaw were the only features that let on there was anything strange about him, and could easily be taken as a clan marker. Unless you knew the Nara had no such defining feature and his maternal family were non-shinobi, the whisker-like lines were innocuous. And the fact the boy's dark brown eyes shone maroon-red in direct sunlight was hardly enough to give anything away, as unnerving as it was.

This relative normality didn't stop any of Shikamaru's primary carers noticing seeming oddities, but it did stop them being commented on. He slept more than was at all usual, and remained still and placid. That was a Nara thing. He learnt to crawl and was contented with that for a long time, only reluctantly mastering the skill of walking. He didn't speak for a long time, but became quiet and alert to sound in a very ninja-like way, and occasionally chased stray squirrels with surprising proficiency. As he grew up, laziness became more and more apparent in his mannerisms, but occasionally a vulpine grace would shine through the haze of languor.

On whole, though, he was just a boy. The Yamanaka family learnt that through continued exposure to him, the Akimichi clan – the better part of which lived outside of Konoha and ran a gargantuan restaurant - had never been exposed to rumours and knew none of the specifics of the events on Shikamaru's birthday. He grew up between his parents and the familiarity of these childhood friends and their families - normal, strict, kind, and welcoming.

* * *

It had been a year and a half after the Kyuubi's attack when Akimichi Chouza's wife, who had been estranged from him, died and left a young child in his care. He awkwardly asked Yukako if she could look after his son while he and his extended family went down to Wave Country for the week. The two women met the third member of the reborn Ino-Shika-Cho trinity. 

The three children quickly established the habits that would define them early in their lives. Shikamaru would happily sleep wherever he was put, Ino would screech and rouse him, and Chouji tried to moderate the dominating girl's influence. The dynamic between the three of them was the final proof of Shikamaru's normality.

* * *

Shikamaru's eyelids twitched as Ino slowly bought the brush up above his face. 

Chouji was trying to reach the chips the girl had put indignantly put away on top of her mom's wardrobe (because she'll notice if you leave crumbs over the floor, idiot!), but he wasn't limber enough to balance on the chair arms and reach across the gap. He was trying pretty hard, though, so he wouldn't notice what she was doing to Shikamaru soon enough to wake him up and stop her like the goody-two-shoes he was.

The nail varnish was pink, Ino's favorite colour. She'd already painted her own nails with it, and they looked pretty even if they were a little smudged (and maybe her fingers were too, but she still looked grown-up). She'd tried doing her lips, too, but maybe her mom used something different for that because the stuff tasted nasty and wasn't the right colour anyway. Still, the funny stripes on her lazy friend's face would look _much_ better pink.

The brush descended.

As she'd just finished one side, Chouji crashed to the floor. Shikamaru shifted at the sound and turned his head, then at hearing crying rolled over and moved to his friends' side. He didn't even notice Ino hiding her hands behind her back, and the girl hastily hid the evidence before moving over to Chouji, worried.

* * *

The kids apologised tearfully, then, in the manner of all children, complained about having to sort out the old clothes that had been in the wardrobe. But after they carried the broken nick-nacks and mouldy clothing over to the second-hand shop without even pestering her for money to go to the sweet shop en route, Yukako couldn't stay angry at them. Particularly since Shikamaru had made the trip with vividly pink gloss painted over the right of his face, laminating his whiskers in a sickly magenta.

* * *

By the time they began to study at the ninja academy, he had a good idea that something was different about him, and that the adults of Konoha disliked him for it. But he'd never been outspokenly vocal, and he'd realised early on that inquiring about it would not make life any easier or more pleasant. 

On his first day at the academy, even the boisterous Ino had been a little nervous, hanging back with Chouji and Shikamaru and demanding reassurance about her looks before striding determinedly towards a flock of girls.

The two males had headed directly into seats at the back of the class, neither wanting to draw attention from the groups of boys congregating around the scowling Uchiha boy or the two cackling kids who were rigging a bucket full of water above the door (the dog yipping and running circles around their feet was impeding their progress, and Shikamaru suspected they'd still be at it by the time the teacher arrived.)

Later, the two were approached by the blond member of the trap-making duo, who had apparently fallen out with the Inuzuka after the dog incriminated his master and the other prankster had laughed instead of coming forwards too. They learned that the exuberant Kazama Naruto was a ramen fan, disliked 'jerks with blood-line limits', and people who didn't see others as anything other than their fathers son. Shikamaru won eternal favour with Naruto for asking if his father was someone famous, and was informed later by Chouji that they had just met the son of the late Yondaime Hokage.

When Ino asked her mother if she could go back with Hana-chan after school, neither of the two boys commented. But the pair of them found themselves at a loss when they wanted something to do. Chouji commented morosely that it _just wasn't the same_, eating more crisps than Ino would have condoned.

* * *

When the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio reached seven, Ino's mother came to the Nara household on a rare social call. The conversation turned to parenting – her sister had come to visit and show off her son, thereby winning both Ino's enmity and her mother's; Shikamaru, paused on the stairs as it had occurred to him that entering the room would get him fussed over by the two matrons, overheard: 

"Just Ino's far too much trouble for me, deary – little she and that Hana-chan tear up my living-room something terrible, and Satoshi-kun's a dear but – God! I'm so glad ours are out of the crying stage, aren't you?

"Then again, your calm Nara kiddies - I almost miss Shikamaru-chan," - said child cringed at the endearment, still hovering on the staircase - "such a quiet boy, no trouble at all... Not planning on having another kid, are you?"

"I couldn't" Yoshino said, and the sudden dejection in her voice made Shikamaru shiver "Not after-..."

Her son crept back upstairs, deeply unnerved.

* * *

At ten, he had perfected the art of cushioning his head in his arms and dozing. Umino Iruka had been frustrated to learn that the seemingly sleeping student had an unreasonable talent for finding answers to questions he had apparently paid no attention to, but his prejudice against the boy changed quickly to vague aggravation with a troublesome student. 

(By calling the 'troublesome student' such, he provided Shikamaru with a term that would serve him well in his efforts to avoid work. Shikamaru was grateful, and used the word as often as he could.)

School wasn't something Shikamaru minded, as a rule. He avoided getting deep into trouble, and generally any attention drawn to him in class was easily forgotten. Usually, it was Ino's fault.

* * *

Umino Iruka thumbed through the work that had been handed in late. Three students in a class of thirty – 10 percent - had failed to complete the one short question they'd been asked to finish, and one hadn't done it at all! 

And Yamanaka Ino – he looked at her answer, and sighed. Not again...

_'Which is more difficult:_ _using Henge no Jutsu or using the same amount of chakra to throw a shuriken. Why? _

'Henge is more trublesome, to do henge you have to focus and mentaly control the chakra. Shuriken throwing is made automattic by practise.'

"_Ino_."

Umino Iruka continued the futile struggle to change their delinquent ways, "I really would prefer it if your answers were your own...

* * *

Another average day for the trio. Slowly but surely, they grew up.

* * *


	3. Nothing Changes, part 1 of 2

The summer before Shikamaru's eleventh birthday, Iruka fell ill. The replacement teacher was far less tolerant of his habit of sleeping through lectures than his predecessor had been, seizing any excuse to remove Shikamaru from his class.

By this age, he was well aware that something was different about him, and that some people disliked him because of it. The teacher's unjustified grudge against him didn't surprise him, and if it raised questions, he didn't ask them. Asking wouldn't make life any easier or more pleasant.

His defence mechanism against an sometimes hostile world had was to take on an air of surly passivity, (thereby vindicating his detractors' dislike– but he was comforted by the fact he could attribute hostility _to_ something.). With Iruka's replacement, as with most of the adult world, he found that sullen indifference provoked a reaction.

Ino and Chouji were concerned by his change from peaceful sloth to blank-faced, almost malignant slacker, but the less he appeared to care about things the more ability he had to influence them.

Eventually, he was told his conduct and grades were unacceptable. He would be permanently removed from the academy.

Unwilling to displease his mother with this news, he reluctantly began to study, effortlessly understanding and memorising principles the academy would spend the next two years drumming into its pupils.

* * *

During this July his sister Rumiko, who had gained her Genin qualification but not continued studies as a ninja, returned home from her job of guiding and escorting tourists around the region. This employment was (theoretically, at least) a placeholder until she found her true vocation, and she was fairly well suited to it despite the impatience she inherited from her mother. 

Shikamaru appreciated his sister's company, though he rarely admitted it. He'd told her about his threatened expulsion from the academy, and she'd helped by helping him learn chakra moulding, one of the few things she remembered from her own academy days. She was at once proud of his unapologetic attitude and aggravated by his exacerbation of the situation, but was always sympathetic.

Today was the last day of her visit, and a Sunday. The two were sitting on the wide trunk of a fallen tree in the woods. The day was hot and humid and the siblings had discarded their sandals and bags, and Shikamaru his shirt in favour of a netted vest. Pollen hung thick in the air, almost luminescent in the patches of sunlight, and Rumiko's rusty-brown hair was illuminated to bronze, golden in the lighter top sections.

Shikamaru lay on his front, pleasantly sleepy in the heat, barely attentive as she complained about tedious mealtime conventions and how slow entourages walked. He was rereading a scroll about ways of applying chakra moulding, something their class would not learn for a whole year, and making a few desultory attempts to visualise his chakra system. It'd be a while before she noticed his inattention, and his mind wandered to thoughts of being able to frustrate Mizuki-sensei by waiting until a third-party was present to judge him before 'admitting' to knowledge of advanced practical skills.

Unfortunately, he was distractedly amused enough that his sister, who had been complaining about a daiymo's aide making advances on her, noticed and, offended, snatched the scroll and hit him with it.

"Ugh! Shikamaru! You could at least act like you care about-"

"-My potential brother-in-law?" He grinned and rolled out of the way, hopping to another branch as he wondered if her reaction to him mentioning the fact she was out of shape would be worth the bothersome but inevitable payback.

"Sheesh, you brat!" She threw her arms up in melodramatic exasperation, "For this short little while you get to see your big sister for, you could at least pretend to have the manners to listen to her!"

"Too troublesome."

Glancing at the somewhat crumpled scroll, she smirked evilly up at him.

* * *

Shikamaru hadn't exactly expected Rumiko's offer to impart unto him her ninja skills to be rooted in generosity, but, annoyingly, his rarely-displayed pride was at stake. She had calmly and with utter poise descended to the ground, telling him to stay seated, then walked straight up a tree until she was seven or eight meters higher up than him. This wouldn't have embarrassed him, but on reaching a branch from another tree that obstructed her vertical passage up the tree by forming a bar at right-angles to her she had had to awkwardly continue walking up until it just-about crossed her torso, wrapped her arms around it and struggled, hauling herself up laboriously and then wiggling around the branch like an infant. 

But, as it turned out, walking vertical to the ground was not easy. And now he felt the need to learn it if only to be able to say it _was_ harder than climbing trees normally, dammit!

* * *

On the ground, he set his fingers in a seal, frowned at the tree-trunk he was facing, and once more began to walk slowly, calmly, regularly up it, one hand parallel to the trunk, pushing vines out of his way. 

And, fifteen feet below the branch his sister nestled on, he slipped back down, displacing vines and slapping leaves against his face and torso as he twisted to land safely.

Rumiko, who had not moved from the branch she'd climbed to, was pretty impressed. It had taken her a long time learn treewalking, and while she was an academy drop-out, most of the rest of her class had either given up on the skill or got help from family members. She'd never been that interested in the job of being a ninja, but she'd recognised the usefulness of shinobi skills, and made a lot of effort to learn this particular trick (it was, in fact, the only academy-learned ability she could still do). She honestly hadn't realised her brother could put that much effort into learning anything – he hadn't called it troublesome even when he fell.

The concept behind it was basic - the use of chakra to aid in physical activity was a skill she and her brother had learnt before starting at the academy, and one that quickly became instinctive. However, walking up trees was different in that it required chakra not just to help or speed up the process, but to facilitate something that was otherwise impossible – walking straight up.

* * *

Shikamaru eventually put aside his sister's challenge of getting all the way up one tree and became absorbed in the mechanics of the skill, climbing different trees to figure out how different surfaces changed the necessary chakra output, using chakra to walk straight back down, and otherwise exploring different options. For perhaps the first time in his life, he was genuinely interested in a task that had been given to him.

* * *

Rumiko had given up watching her brother, and was now writing to her (self-professed) boyfriend, a shy Leaf genin from her academy class who she really didn't like in that way. He was so caring she couldn't bring herself to tell him that, and he wrote long missives to her conscientiously every week. She'd been avoiding seeing him for fear he might try to kiss her, but would leave the letter to Shikamaru, who would procrastinate delivering it until she was safely distant...

* * *

They were absorbed in their respective tasks for almost an hour; as the sun fell in the sky, the weather began to get oppressively clammy. Rumiko called down to Shikamaru, daring him to come up to her before heading back to their original branch to retrieve their belongings. She watched the small figure start his walk up the tree, his body perpendicular to her branch, growing steadily larger in her perspective until his head was obscured by the branch she was seated on. Confident in his progress, and rolled up her mostly-complete missive and stood up, stretching.

* * *

Shikamaru ascended almost easily, but dared not show off. Eyes fixed on the middle ground of the tree stretched out/up/ahead, biting his bottom lip in a doubtless uncharacteristic display of concentration, he proceeded up the length of the trunk, avoiding looking either at the canopy or his sister, who would probably take a sadistic pleasure in breaking his concentration.

* * *

Rumiko sat back down by straddling the branch, then swinging her legs back behind her and sliding down so she was lying on her front, looking down on her brother. He was only a few feet below her, and so his head was disappointingly out of her line of vision. She would had reversed her position on the branch, but something caught her eye-- 

--Through Shikamaru's mesh vest, she saw a complex black design etched onto his skin.

Like any intelligent ex-student of an academy for ninja, she recognised the pattern as an example of fuuinjutsu. And in her role as the defensive elder sister of a less than well-liked boy, she had heard many and varied accusations and denied them without considerations.

But – they must be -- _true!_


	4. Nothing Changes, part 2 of 2

Previously:

_Rumiko sat back down by straddling the branch, then swinging her legs back behind her and sliding down so she was lying on her front, looking down on her brother. He was only a few feet below her, and so his head was disappointingly out of her line of vision. She would had reversed her position on the branch, but something caught her eye--_

_--Through Shikamaru's mesh vest, she saw a complex black design etched onto his skin. _

_Like any intelligent ex-student of an academy for ninja, she recognised the pattern as an example of fuuinjutsu. And in her role as the defensive elder sister of a less than well-liked boy, she had heard many and varied accusations and denied them without considerations. _

_But – they must be – true!_

* * *

Younger, she had explained to Shikamaru he could share her birthday, since his had been a bit unfortunate. Younger, she'd been more than able to pick up on the uncomfortable silences her brother had provoked sometimes just by existence, and defended him from them even when he didn't seem to care. People of her own age had been in a proverbial grey area when it came to certain decrees, and she'd overheard and overreacted to a lot of talk about Shikamaru, which she'd rationalised as bitterness about his birth – resentment of the presence of life among death. 

She'd mostly forgotten all that, since leaving. But suddenly it all made a lot more sense.

* * *

She had jumped up, recoiled, and evidently startled him, because with a cry he fell back down the tree. She was all but unaware of this for a minute, before sense reasserted itself. 

"Shit!"

She sprang downwards with an urgency-driven disregard for her own comfort she had rarely felt before; she'd spoken out loud when she'd said things were true. She hadn't meant that, and whatever the – _seal?_ - on her sibling meant, she would no way agree with those bastards that insulted him.

Reaching the ground, Rumiko jarred both knees and collapsed ignonimously. Shikamaru had fallen directly down but landed crouched with a grace the academy had never been able to teach her. He had turned to look at her with an urgency of movement uncharacteristic of him.

"Shit, I'm sorry Shika-kun, I shouldn' speak before I think. I don't mean that!" She shifted into a half-kneeling pose, with one hand massaging her bruised ankle and the other supporting her weight as she leant towards him. He looked away from her.

"I was – startled. I wouldn't ever agree with other people about you, Shikamaru. Not ever."

* * *

Whether her sincerity reached him, she couldn't tell. Since she had left, Shikamaru's face had become even more impassive, and now it was a closed book to her. He got up, looked at her. She rose as well, wincing. He opened his mouth to ask if she was OK, but she pre-empted the question by walking back up the tree towards her belongings. He followed. 

She congratulated him on climbing the tree a few minutes they'd both reached the top, but it was in a horridly flat apologetic tone. He hadn't responded.

The rest of the journey home was in silence. Rumiko stole glances at Shikamaru, whose face was blank. She wondered whether he knew what had startled her or not, whether he wanted to know. She remembered him curious about his birthday, about what his father meant by prejudice.

* * *

At dinner, neither made conversation. Rumiko's noticably downcast manner drew questions from her mother, but they were brushed aside. Shikamaru went to his room, still impassive enough that his parents could tell something was wrong. Flinging himself down onto his futon, he tried not to listen to the murmurs of muted speech, needing to exert a frightening amount of effort to stop himself speculating on what they were saying about him. 

His head propped up by the wall, he found himself looking down at his stomach. The flesh visible through his mesh shirt seemed innocuous, though he'd reasoned already that chakra usage had... revealed something to her. His thought processes had been confused for that journey. He had used his sister's presence to stop himself looking down at whatever had – caused her to react like that.

He rolled over onto the bed, schooling himself to look up at the ceiling. Force of will, curiosity, and fear were a torturous combination. He got up, paced. Reasoned with himself. _You have to find out sometime_.

* * *

When Rumiko left the next morning, her feelings about her brother were mixed. Her parents had in actuality done little more than vindicate her unwillingly drawn conclusion of what Shikamaru was and why, but the knowledge was troubling. She genuinely didn't care about what she'd found out – even if only because she hadn't really processed the knowledge yet - being worried instead by how Shikamaru would deal with it. He had been restraining his expressions, keeping his face neutral. That wasn't a good sign. She couldn't tell whether or not he was upset by how she'd acted. She felt guilty that she was leaving now. She'd seen him and said goodbye, and sorry, but neither had mentioned the issue that was – surely -on both their minds. She hoped, sincerely, that he'd be all right. 

She didn't realise until she was well outside the village that she'd forgotten to finish or leave the letter to her quasi-boyfriend.

* * *

That previous night, Shikamaru's mental confusion had scared him more than the possible conclusions. 

He'd looked, as detachedly as he could, at his own life and the peripheral details. He'd deduced what Rumiko had seen and consequently assumed.

His mother had come to say goodnight and found him fixedly staring at the ceiling, been informed tersely that he was thinking, and been bid goodnight on leaving.

Half an hour later, he'd switched on the lamp, taken off his shirt, and used chakra to shift his body weight onto the wall so his head and arms were cushioned by his pillow but he was resting diagonally between his bed and the wall. The bizarre position (he couldn't generate chakra consistently without making the a hand seal, and with his hands in position across his chest he couldn't see his stomach) let him see the seal he'd known would be there, and he forced himself to stay there until he'd committed to memory the rough shape of the design around his navel.

By the time he'd done that, his heartbeat had almost gone back to normal.

Lying once more staring up at the ceiling, he resolved not to mention it to anyone. To pretend ignorance. He would much rather people – and for people, read: semi-hostile adults - didn't know how much he knew. His schoolmates... had no need to know. Chouji, arguably his best friend, would be curious only if he realised there was something to be curious about, and he, unlike Ino, hadn't considered the existence of a reason for the village's collective dislike of Shikamaru.

Ino... he sighed. She'd be troublesome if she realised he knew anything more about the whole issue. Telling her would be more of a pain than keeping it secret, though, because Ino had no sense of discretion, and while none of the other students knew him well enough to ask him why there was so much suppressed animosity towards him (except perhaps Naruto, who had never understood or cared about propriety), that didn't mean they wouldn't be curious. Would they care? Would they dislike him like the older generation seemed to?

If Naruto ever heard anything about this... He hoped the cheerful boy never would.

Naruto was two months younger than him, and had never known his father or his mother, who'd died giving birth. He wondered what the outspoken student would think if he found out the cause and consquence of his father's death.

The Fourth Hokage's child had always hated being seen as the son of a hero, and was known for loud declarations that he wasn't his father, he'd do better than him. Shikamaru shuddered when he remembered the blond coming to join him in his cloudwatching, uncharacteristically silent. He'd started talking to Shikamaru, complaining about how he'd been reprimanded for criticising his dad. Eventually, when his anger was worn out, Naruto had told his lazy companion, seriously, that he was proud to have a dad who was a hero. He just wished he'd hadn't had to die to be one.

Shikamaru wasn't going to sleep well.


	5. Begin the Begin

The formation of the Genin teams hadn't surprised anyone. Ino was indignant about being kept from 'her Sasuke-kun', but Shikamaru would have bet that each member of Team Ten was privately relieved to be back in their familiar childhood group.

Still, he complained about Ino as much as he could without provoking her into a real rage, and Chouji placidly ducked the crossfire as she chased him around.

Being a Genin annoyed Ino, whose distaste for D-rank missions rivalled her fury at Sakura for being on Sasuke's team. It worried Chouji, who realised that his future would lack opportunities to visit his cousins in the nearby town and help in their restaurant. It made Shikamaru think very hard about his life choices. His father had taught him the Shadow Bind move the week after he graduated the Academy, and the new Genin was aware learning the shinobi arts was their responsibility now, not an obligation or something to do because your teacher told you to. And their team-mates' survival as well as their own would depend on it.

Shikamaru didn't want to be responsible for his friends' survival. Not in the slightest.

* * *

Five months and four C-Rank missions passed, and life had fallen into a routine. Shikamaru had worked more willingly than he had at the academy, but found himself moaning more often and more expressively while he did so, amusing himself with complaints with impunity. 

Their team was working together easily now. None of their missions so far had included combat with other shinobi, although bandits and thieves had forced the Nara to demonstrate the Shadow Bind, and taught Ino when to take advantage of that trap and use Shintenshin no Jutsu (the same strategy had been used on a fast-moving cat, but they weren't proud of that day's work). The trio had learnt how to cooperate.

And now... Asuma-sensei had entered them for the Chuunin Exams.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Ino had entered them. Chouji didn't object to her wish to do so, and when Shikamaru had looked pleadingly at Asuma, their teacher had kindly told him that he was leaving the decision in their collective hands. Shikamaru had snorted in disbelief, suspecting the Jounin's indifference was due more to the fact that he wouldn't have to suffer from the consequences of Ino's whim than any wish to propagate teamwork.

* * *

Shikamaru sighed. He supposed the second exam had been a good exercise, but that forest had been _majorly_ troublesome. As the Hokage addressed them, his mind wandering... these exams were such a hassle. He didn't want to be a Chuunin, and if he hadn't known how angry Ino'd be if he let their team fail he'd have dropped out by now. 

His ears reported the concept of life and death battles to him, and the phrase conjuring an image of Ino shaking her fists in a fury, realising their failure was his fault. She'd dragged him by his hair after the Chuunin who'd come out of the scroll, even though he'd pointed out the teamwork testing was presumably finished. Ugh...

The speech seemed far too long, and even when Sandaime was replaced by that ill-looking Hayate man the voice seemed the same. He was so tired, having kept watch through the night...

But Shikamaru considered himself an accomplished slacker, and one of the skills slackers valued highly was the ability to recall what people had been saying although he'd been ignoring it at the time. The skill did so infuriate teachers... but, wait! He snapped to attention and then to anger;

"_Preliminary? _What do you mean?"

"Ah," hedged the invalid "We have a few too many candidates remaining for this stage..."

Shikamaru felt his return to cloud-watching peace being snatched away. Chouji nudged him, but he felt the need to sulk. And the fights'd be immediate.

So. Troublesome. Ino had better not complain when they lost...

* * *

He looked around at the assembled Genin. His team, of course; Team 8: Kiba, who he mildly disliked, Hinata, who was weird and not very Hyuuga-like, and Shino, who he respected for being even better at doing nothing than Shikamaru himself. Team 7 was Naruto, Ino's friend Sakura, and the favoured lust object of the female portion of their year. The Uchiha. 

The other Leaf Genin... he recognised a Hyuuga who had to be Neji, apparently the genius of his year. Shikamaru had heard Naruto complain about him impotently (on the grounds that he had once told Naruto to stop challenging his father's legacy, which was pretty good advice in Shikamaru's book.) The other older Genin didn't know, but he didn't want to fight anyone older than him, particularly not if they were female. Hurting women was not something even 'emotionless ninja' should do.

Then again, he'd take the older generations of the Leaf over the foreigners. Something about the Sand team made him want to stay far away, and the Sound were no better. He shrugged and slouched in position as he watched the electric screen.

The first fight... Kiba vs Lee. Two strange and occasionally disturbing individuals...

They all ascended to the raised part of the stadium, and Shikamaru leant against the wall, feeling its cold, smooth surface as heavenly after the five day camping trip. Really, he wanted a bath but the cool stone wall soothed all the knotted muscles and bruises obtained from days of sleeping on the floor and being woken up by Ino's less-than-tender exhortations...

* * *

Ino shoved him, and he balanced reflexively. 

"It's Chouji's match and YOU WILL CHEER HIM ON!" she snarled, grabbing his shoulder and propelling him to the forwards-facing side of the platform. He blinked sleep from his eyes.

"How many matches are gone?"

"Lee beat Kiba; it was close, though. Kiba turned all doggy and weird and used some soldier's pill or some-such... He's really got strong.

"Sasuke beat that sound guy, Yoroi; he's ill or something, though, so his Jounin-sensei took him away. Shino beat that kunoichi Tenten from the year above us, because," Ino smirked vindictively "She's scared of bugs, and there are bugs _living_ in Shino."

Shikamaru looked at Ino seriously. Ino twitched. And glared.

"Yeah, OK, so am I ...! Big deal!--

"--Chouji's fight's on now! GO CHOUJI!!"

Chouji was carefully removing food from his pockets and putting it to one side lest it get damaged. The other competitor was the (marginally) less creepy of the two male Sand shinobi, and Team 10 watched as he descended.

* * *

Chouji stood to attention, smiling slightly at Ino's cheering. The cat-eared Sand Genin, Kankuro, was sneering at him. 

"Oi, can we just get on with it? I've got better things to do than fight some fat loser."

Chouji's placid optimism vanished like a plate of rice-balls in the Akimichi clan-house. The examiner bought a hand down and signalled begin, and the ninja leapt into action.

"_Baika no Jutsu!_"

(On the gallery, Naruto and Ino yelled as one, and Shikamaru covered his ears in pain before reating his arms on the railing and focussing completely on his friend's fight. _You know better than to let someone taunt you, Chouji_.)

Chouji's team had never seen him perform the growth technique so rapidly before; he was rolling into action around Kankuro almost before Hayate had stepped out of range. The Leaf students got louder and more confident as their 'pleasantly plump' competitor literally ran rings round the Sand fighter, deflecting shuriken and kunai through his own super-thick protective skin.

But Shikamaru was nervous; the Sand fighter's movement was becoming deliberate, and they still had no idea what the thing on his back was. _Setting up a trap?_

Chouji charge-rolled in a wide circle around his opponent, swinging in from an angle. The move was a predictable strike, but too fast to block and there were no vulnerable points on a furiously-rotating spherical shinobi.

But-- Kankuro struck. Swinging the bandaged object on his back out across and past Chouji's path, he dodged back in the other direction, one end of the bandage wrapped around his wrist. His hands flickered into signs. The bandages unravelled as person-sized thing swung around Chouji, conducted by Kankuro.

Shikamaru realised his friend would be caught in the wrappings, and he yelled for his teammate to _move! _Ino was screeching beside him, but he didn't feel anything except overwhelming concern for his friend as his overgrown form was crushed tighter and tighter.

The now-revealed puppet slammed into the tied-up boy, Kankuro flicked his fingers in a complicated gesture. The machine extended an arm, tipped with a wicked blade--

Hayate shouted for the end of the match--

And the blade plunged into the struggling mass of bandages.

Red blossomed through the dirty white.

Shikamaru and Ino leapt down as one, hearing Naruto yell above them. Shikamaru noticed peripherally that the painted face of the Sand Genin was twisted in amusement, but he dismissed his fury in order to help the med-nin lift his friend up onto a stretcher. As they moved off the floor, he heard Gekkou Hayate behind him.

"Winner, Sabaku no Kankuro!"


	6. World Leader Pretend

Ino and Shikamaru were kept at a distance as the medical staff treated Chouji, Shikamaru taking in information about blood supply loss and hoping Chouji wasn't listening to the detached stream of gory information. His friend was still conscious, but the puppet's weapon had been a mild poison and the combination of pain-killers and the antidote, combined with the after-effects of his growth jutsu, had made him drowsy. They stayed by his side, Ino snarling threats towards the entire Hidden Village of the Sand.

Asuma had appeared, and spoke with the head medic at a distance. Shikamaru eavesdropped, hand on his chin, fingers restlessly scratching the whisker-marks on his cheeks. It wasn't like they told him not to, and if they didn't realise he had good hearing that was their business.

Chouji would be incapacitated for several weeks, maybe longer. The growth of tissue by chakra depleted stocks of nutrients and made it unsafe to use more jutsu to speed up healing.

_Curse it all_. This exam wasn't just troublesome, it made Shikamaru downright angry that he and his team should be hurt participating in stupid mock battles.

* * *

It was Naruto, ever helpful, who came to tell Ino her match was on next. Against Sakura.

The two girls had been a volatile combination in recent years, thought Shikamaru, standing up by Chouji's side. Their fight would be interesting. He couldn't quite muster up the desire to care.

Chouji smiled weakly at him, encouraging him to go watch. He felt unreasonably guilty walking away.

* * *

Ino and Sakura... their fight was complicated. It was a girl thing, and even someone like Shikamaru, who'd known Ino since long before she'd met Sakura, found it difficult to understand the relationship between them. Sakura felt undermined by the loud girl, but wanted to be like her. Or wanted independence from her. Why would someone think like that? It was a pain, following the female thought pattern.

He couldn't concentrate on the two. Chouji had been hurt, badly, and he hadn't even had the courtesy to say good luck to him before his fight. Hadn't given him advice, or even given any real indication he was watching.

_Kages,_ he didn't want to see his team hurt, and this whole exam business seemed far more serious in light of Chouji's injury. Hayate hadn't stepped in quick enough to stop the knife-blade. He'd heard the medic, if it'd been an inch higher up his torso it'd have puncturing his lung; a nail's width deeper and it would have ruptured his liver and poisoned him, perhaps fatally. The details kept repeating in the Nara's mind, and as he watched Ino fighting Sakura he felt an uncomfortable paranoia; unable to disregard even the most casual kunai-throw without his attention being drawn to the sharp edge. Potential death seemed such a tangible thing in the light of fear. He'd got used to how casually ninja-kind treated weapons, but Chouji's injury had made him hyper-alert to the danger. Bought back a mostly-forgotten cautiousness.

He made himself shift his attention away from the fight. He had been forcibly reminded that his role as a team member was to watch out for his comrades, and he'd failed that. Being asleep hadn't just been rude because he'd neglected to encourage Chouji, it'd meant he had not fulfilled his job as strategist of Team 10. If he'd been watching the proceedings and potential opponents more closely, he might have been able to warn his teammates.

He turned to Naruto for details of the fights he'd missed, pulling analysis back to the forefront of his mind.

* * *

When Shikamaru realised he'd missed his chance to fight both Hyuuga he was briefly delighted, albeit indignant that Neji had beaten up his younger, _female_ cousin. He grumbled to Naruto that their house had tradition, it ought to have a sense of chivalry.

The other ninja jumped on the subject, launching into a tirade in defence of the younger Byakugan user, and Shikamaru disregarded him, intrigued by the match-ups. For Sakura and Ino to have been paired together, then for Neji and Hinata... the pair-offs didn't look very random. Lee had fought Kiba, Shino Tenten. That looked a lot like someone was trying to keep the Leaf Genin from fighting the outsiders.

He studied said outsiders. The Sand trio were together: the blonde female looked apprehensive, that Kankuro by her side (Shikamaru found himself wanting to hurt him for what he'd done to Chouji). The third sibling, the menacing Gaara, stood to the side, disdainful. Kankuro was attentive to his sister, putting a hand on her shoulder. Both of them shot wary - _scared_ - glances at Gaara.

Was she scared to be paired against Gaara? Only one Sound Genin and one Sand had fought. That left Naruto, Shikamaru, Gaara, Temari, and two Sound Genin to fight. The two Sand had a fairly high chance of coming up against each other. Temari was scared of this. Scared of Gaara, her brother. Why?

And what was the reason behind the strange match-ups?

Neji, Lee, Sasuke, Shino and Kankuro were the winners so far. If someone was fixing the results so Leaf Genin were together he'd be against Naruto. Why would someone do that? The obvious answer was to prevent techniques being shown in case a counter could be devised in the month interlude. Had the other two villages got an agreement not to fight full-out against each other?

The only fight between a Konoha nin and a foreigner had been Chouji against Kankuro; why? To avoid suspicion, perhaps...

While Chouji was his best friend but he couldn't honestly say the Akimichi was thought of as a genius ninja like the Uchiha. That Kankuro hadn't revealed the real capacities of his puppet; their fight could have been a calculated risk that Chouji wouldn't pose enough of a threat to make the puppeteer reveal his secrets.

His attention returned to reality: Ino and Sakura were both unconscious. Neither was badly hurt.

* * *

"Kazama Naruto vs. Nara Shikamaru"

And back to analysis: his suspicions were vindicated. But Naruto didn't let him think about them, grinning and dragging the lazy ninja down the stairs...


	7. Round Seven, Fight!

Previously, on Indifference:

* * *

_ "Kazama Naruto vs. Nara Shikamaru"_

* * *

"Ha! Finally, I get to fight! Shikamaru, you'd better take this seriously!" 

Shikamaru frowned in aggravation. Naruto was practically vibrating with energy, and he felt exceptionally drained after the day's events.

"Oi! Oi! Shikamaru!! You're not going to let a dumb prankster ninja like me beat you in strategy, are you?" Kages, was that his idea of a taunt? Still, he supposed he had to at least attempt a fight.

Naruto far outclassed him in terms of physical strength, stamina and knowledge of Ninjutsu. Shikamaru would have to out-think him. He'd give it a go. The shadow-user settled into his stance.

"Seventh fight, begin!"

They both started by sending a volley of kunai against the other, Shikamaru falling back towards the statue of hands folded in a sign. Throw a set of shuriken, draw him towards me... Naruto leapt forwards in a kick, and Shikamaru was caught in the shoulder because of the opening he'd left deliberately.

It hurt to make the necessary hand seal for Kagemane no Jutsu, but – voila! Naruto, who had never fought against Shikamaru before, had been lured into the shadow of the statue. The blond Genin found himself immobilised.

"Arg!!"

Shikamaru wasn't entirely sure what the next move should be. He'd never used this technique against another ninja. Still, Naruto was only a meter in front of the statue while he himself had a whole room behind him. He slid his hands into his pockets, one holding a kunai, keeping his expression as poker-faced as he could. Naruto's eyes were frowned in mimicry of him, but his pupils darted from side to side. Shikamaru backed up, raising the weapon as if taking aim. _He needs to be about a foot away from the statue when I make us dodge back..._

_This is a bad situation... I've got to get out of this bind!_ Naruto planned. And forced his fingers to move - just a little - independently in his pockets.

And as Shikamaru automatically bought his empty hand up to help aim the kunai, he didn't notice the discrepancy in the reflected movement of Naruto.

_This is gonna hurt_, thought Naruto as he desperately battled for control of his fingers, just enough to release the smoke bomb in his hand so it didn't explode in contact with him.

It went off, too close. Burnt his hand and stung like hell, but the sound of it going off snapped Shikamaru's still imperfect control over the shadow bind. And, more importantly, it hid Naruto's movements...Konoha's Number One Unpredictable Ninja got to work.

Shikamaru swore, trying to locate his opponent by sound. The smoke muffled noise, but the faint figure he could see was definitely a bunshin. He threw shuriken to chase out the other ninja. Hmm...

He heard a technique name muttered, and threw kunai in that direction. The missile didn't hit anything, but they gave Shikamaru a moment to reposition himself with his back to the statue. A strategy was called for... He hardly noticed his hands form their familiar circle shape.

Shikamaru was not at this point in his life used to coming up with strategies on the spot. The smoke-cloud was impeding his ability to see, and his deep concentration meant he barely noticed the tell-tale hints that someone was moving.

Instinct threw Shikamaru aside, and the kunai struck the statue to the right of his head.

* * *

_An old memory: at eight, the academy students starting their lessons on the use of projectiles. Sitting on mats in a large room, the class was eager and excitable. Shikamaru had discretely rested his weight on the wall at the start of the lecture, but had slid further and further out of the seemingly attentive posture._

_He remember the monotonous voice of the instructor, and becoming dimly aware of an change in the tone. Then there had been a shout, and he'd opened his eyes, seen a metallic object flying towards him, and thrown himself out of the way, terrified._

_The teacher had told his class that the lesson to be learned was to remain aware; Kiba had asked something callous along the lines of 'would that have killed pineapple head?' and been told that that had been a practice weapon._

_Shikamaru hadn't picked up the kunai, but from the weight and the gouge in the wall, he'd ascertained that it had been real. There was still an indent in the wall, at what had been chest height on a kneeling seven-year-old._

* * *

The memory struck the Chuunin candidate almost physically as he rolled to to his feet, looking around. _Focus, Shikamaru!_ It was uncharacteristic for Naruto to only throw one weapon, and – ah! 

A figure was running forward in the haze, not the same direction as the kunai had been thrown from. Bunshin, perhaps.

"_Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!_"

Apparently not a bunshin; Naruto would be unlikely to be able to make clones advanced enough to use jutsu. He sent his shadow forwards as he dodged the fire-balls.

The attacks were being launched from behind the orange-clad ninja. There was no shadow there, though. An advanced concealment technique of some sort?

He feinted and retreated as far into the shadow as he could, sending shadows across the floor. Naruto threw down another smoke bomb, and something about the direction of the throw seemed off. Where was the real Naruto? After a few more exchanges of projectiles for mini fire-balls, he calculated the ninjutsu were coming from behind and to the left of the indistinct bunshin.

The Kagemane latched onto another chakra system. Shikamaru walked forwards, expecting some kind of trap. But even the bunshin-figure had disappeared. The spectators were tense, someone was coughing from the smoke, the sound strangely isolated in a room full of people. Shikamaru felt uneasy. He felt the urge to slip his hands into his pockets, but that'd let the cunning blond get away in the first place. Do I have enough chakra to hold him until the smoke clears...?

He was still wondering that when Naruto yelled, jumping towards him from the side with his hands in a seal form.

"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu!"

Shikamaru dropped down into the floor, and – worse – he could feel his feet were hanging freely down into the room below. Cracks ran across the floor, its structure weakened.

(Ino, presumably returned to consciousness while they had fought, laughed, seeing from above nothing more of her teammate than his distinctive hairstyle protruding from the ground.)

Naruto, grinning broadly, crouched down.

"Surrender?"

"I give." Shikamaru said, frowning with his lip stuck out. "You used a decoy - what the hell was I trying to catch?"

The victor pulled his friend out of the floor, the two moving hurriedly as cracks spread.

"That!" He pronounced with a strange mixture of smugness and likeable enthusiasm "Was the Empty Clone technique. It makes a clone out of your chakra, but it can't affect or be affected by physical stuff. It can use jutsu, and get caught or blown up by them

"But it needs to be prepared before-hand, it has a paper seal the user makes and sticks a whole load of chakra in. Aunti-san says they're used for – what's it called – reconn-thing. Like, spying."

"Reconnaissance. Ugh, I can't believe I got beaten by someone who doesn't know that."

"Yeah, it was that. And I out-thought you, so nya!"

Shikamaru laughed at the sight of Naruto with his tongue stuck out, eyes squeezed shut. How could Naruto be so likeable and so annoying at the same time? He just wasn't someone you could dislike.

"Whatever; well done on getting through."

"Winner:" Hayate announced "Kazama Naruto."


	8. Orange Crush

The two boys returned to the observation level together.

"Aren't you upset you didn't get through?" Ino asked, as Shikamaru took a place besides her and Sakura against the railing. Naruto grinned and went to Sakura's side, boasting good-naturedly about his victory.

"Not in the slightest" Shikamaru didn't conceal his distaste, "Fighting all those strong people would be far too troublesome."

* * *

The relaxed atmosphere among the remaining Leaf Genin, one that could hardly have contrasted more with the Sand faction. Shikamaru observed Temari, seeing that her knuckles were white from the grip she had on her battle-fan. Gaara was still distant, but there was a ferocious anticipation visible in his stance. 

Temari's relief was palpable when she was sent down to fight the female Sound Genin, although it was quickly transmuted to a violent confidence. Her opponent was thrown around helplessly by the winds Temari's fan generated, which twisted the metal railings and wreaked havoc on the bystanders' hairstyles. Kin's senbon needles were all but useless. Naruto looked concerned for the slight Sound fighter, and Shikamaru couldn't help flinching as she was tossed into walls by the power of the Sand kunoichi's attacks.

The fight lasted maybe two minutes, then Hayate intervened. He interposed himself between the two women, facing Temari with the air of a defender rather than an impartial judge. Shikamaru almost expected the blonde to attack, but Temari eased out of her crouched, aggressive stance - very slowly though, hands very slightly unsteady as she walked off the floor.

Gaara transported himself down to the battle-ground, satisfaction hinted at in the curve of his mouth. The last and youngest of the Sand team was just _unnerving, _and not only because of Temari's behaviour towards him. Shikamaru was on edge watching him from a distance, and he could see the others felt the same unease.

But Zaku, the final Sound ninja, apparently didn't feel the same. He stormed down to meet the red-head, body language threatening in the very conventional way that ninja are warned against.

"The Sand" he sneered, "w_ill not humiliate our village like that!_"

The last part was a crude shout. Shikamaru had looked at the panel of overseers at the start of this challenge, and saw the Kazekage react. The lazy Genin (unlikely now to graduate) felt out of his depth... If this tacit agreement was at such a high level, that hinted at something very serious indeed.

Hayate-san signalled for the fight to begin, then hastily backed away. Every spectator was watching now, all alert for clues to the nature of the intimidating Sand ninja.

Gaara slowly raised one hand to behind his head, removing the stopper to his gourd with a practiced movement.

The Sound ninja was circling him, angry but too well trained to make the first move and lose whatever advantage he thought he had. _His arms... I'm sure they aren't as useless as they seem_.

Gaara stood still, not even keeping Zaku in his line of vision. Kankuro's face was serious, and he Temari held a quiet discussion. Shikamaru's eavesdropping was curtailed by Ino glaring furiously at the puppeteer, which provoked equally hostile looks from the Sand duo and led them to move away. Temari's muttered comment about Leaf babies nearly started an unscheduled fight, but it was then Gaara made his move.

He launched the stopper from his gourd at Zaku with the force of a kunai-throw. Naruto snorted in amusement.

"That's why you shouldn't fight when --

But the Sound combatant bought up one arm reflexively, catching the projectile an inch away from his eye.

"-- Your arms are bust..."

"Gaara, remember what Baki-sensei said!" The pleading cry from Temari surprised the audience. "Don't do anything... like _that jutsu_ yet!"

The Lead contingent looked at various members of the Sand team. Kankuro snorted.

"Man, that was subtle. Wanna shout that a bit louder, Temari?"

Shikamaru felt annoyed that the cat-eared boy had said something that so closely mirrored his own opinion. It wasn't just that he disliked the other Genin; although Chouji's fight was over, he still thought of the Kankuro as an opponent. It was as if those years of schooling had finally clicked into place in his mind, neat shinobi classifications being overlaid on the much more confusing real world. The Sand boy had been firmly placed into the category of 'enemy'.

Gaara shifted, and the spectators' attention fixed on the scene below them. Shikamaru was the only one to look back up at Temari and Kankuro, who were watching with a nervousness that definitely was not a comrade's worry for an endangered friend.

As he looked back at Gaara, the Sand boy raised one open hand to face the Sound ninja, moving with anticipatory slowness, his upper lip pulling away from his teeth in a predatory smile.

The cork for the gourd was dissolving into sand, sand that swirled around the Sound fighter's fingers. Zaku tried to snatch his hand away, but it was followed.

Gaara brought his fingers together suddenly, face suddenly animated with viciousness.

And Zaku screamed as his fingers were crushed by the suddenly compacted sound. The crunch the digits made as they were subjected to the massive pressure was audible from the stands, and the room collectively winced.

Hayate coughed. Kin, who was now leaning uncomfortably against the railing, yelled: "Forfeit!!"

Zaku raised his shaking hand, blood running down from the fingers. He choked, whispered something hoarsely that was presumably an announcement of surrender. And dropped down, cradling the ruined hand.

There was silence. Gaara walked back up to his siblings without waiting to be announced victorious, and showing no acknowledgement of the horror in the audience's eyes.

* * *

There was a minute of awkward silence, before the winners were ushered down. 

"Representing the Fire Country from the Hidden Village of Konoha:

Uchiha Sasuke;

Aburame Shino;

Kazama Naruto;

Rock Lee;

and Hyuuga Neji

"And from our allies in Hidden Sand:

Sabaku no Gaara;

Sabaku no Temari;

Sabaku no Kankuro.

"And from the hidden Sound: Kinuta Dosu."

From the stands, the female Otonin – Kin - snarled venomously at the assembled victors, before turning and limping out. As the Hokage began to speak, Ino grabbed Shikamaru's arm, gesturing to the medical center. They headed back out, Ino extracting a promise from Sakura to be told the details of the next match.


	9. Everything Will Be Alright

Later, Ino and Shikamaru were at Chouji's bedside in the Konoha hospital. The plump boy was asleep, but he'd been taken to the infirmary and cut out of the bandages while his team had been watching the final fights. Looking at him, Shikamaru felt the tension of the last few days diminish and fade into weariness.

"Is it my fault?" Ino asked, clearly not sharing his relief at Chouji's now-stabalised state. She was worried about him, and therefore overly emotional. He felt awkward. _Women are so hard to deal with when they're agitated..._

"I got us to enter, just because forehead-girl and her team were. You and Chouji didn't really want to take the exams, so it's... really... because of me that he's hurt..."

She reached one hand out gently, as if to touch Chouji's face.

"I was – being so selfish! Me and forehead-girl were really stupid, weren't we, to drag you guys into our arguments. But, really-" She looked up from Chouji to Shikamaru, who was watching her with a soft but observant expression, "it was just me dragging you guys into them."

He should really say something, but he had no idea what the best thing to say in such a situation would be. He hadn't even known Ino could speak that softly, and she'd never before shown that she realised how much of the team's actions she dictated. Oh, dear... she was just now realising it. Accepting your own character flaws wasn't easy, and Ino was new to introspection. This wasn't going to be pleasant.

She must have seen something – pity? - in his look, because she looked back down at Chouji with a kind of shuddering emotion that scared Shikamaru. _O Kami-sama, what if she starts crying?! _

"Dammit, Chouji, you better wake up soon so I can apologise!"

She spun round and dashed out of the room. Shikamaru, confused, stood, then moved to sit where Ino had been.

He sat quietly for a few minutes. Then gave in to the urge to consider concerns.

"Chouji, this third exam, the tournament, it isn't something guys like us will be sorry to miss. Naruto beat me, so he's in, and that Gaara, Temari and the other one are there. Hyuuga Neji, too. And, let's see, Rock Lee, Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino.

"You'll be glad Team Ten's out of a mess like that. There are all strong guys there. And by the time the actual fights are on, you'll be fine so we can go and watch them. If Naruto fights that Kankuro he'll beat him for you, I'm sure. The idiot. He's so concerned with justice in a situation like this. I swear, he's getting to me, because I feel like I should be doing something like that too. It's ... like we talked about before.

"Being a shinobi, it requires so much effort. I thought it'd be an interesting way to live my life, and I could intersperse missions in between the relaxing days of watching the clouds. But for the last five days, this ninja life of ours has overtaken those peaceful days; you've been living on rations and we've been constantly watching the trees and ground for tracks. I've not observed even a single cloud drifting calmly across my line of vision.

"I'm, worried, Chouji. I want to discuss this lifestyle with you; you'd understand. Ino is already committed to her rivalry, but guys like us find... we'd rather remain indifferent. But when that Kankuro stabbed you" - Shikamaru's face twisted unconsciously in painful remembrance - "I found for the first time since we graduated that I was ... completely engaged in this shinobi behaviour. Tensed to attack, and...

"It scares me that if we stay as a team, start taking dangerous missions, I'll change. Find myself unable to return to my field and watch the clouds. Something like that wouldn't scare Ino or... I dunno, Naruto, but I don't-- I don't know if I want to, you know, take this on as a full time occupation. I don't want to live my life training and always needing more ability, more techniques, more strength. This motivation that I've found is my commitment to you guys. It's not an ambition that can ever be fulfilled, keeping you safe. And those strong guys that are training themselves for the next round – they kill people like us, Chouji."

He rested his forehead in his hand, feeling painful tension from the ponytail that held his hair too tight. He pressed the heel of his palm into his eyes.

He thought of more to say to Chouji, but didn't say it out loud.

_If that's what's needed of me, Chouji, I'll make the commitment._

Shikamaru left the hospital and returned to the Nara home around about sunset, not wanting to fall asleep at his friend's side. It had seemed like a good idea, but the nurses wouldn't approve and even if he didn't get kicked out (which he would have been) he didn't want to wake up even more sore and achy from sleeping in a chair.

So he trudged home, bone tired.

* * *

His mother hurried to meet him as she heard his return, concerned for his health, disgusted with his appearance (he was still covered in dirt from Naruto's doton jutsu) and generally making more noise than he really appreciated. 

But... _By the sky_, thought Shikamaru, yawning, _It's good to be home_...

He didn't eat the dinner they'd delayed for him, and only reluctantly consented to take a shower (having been forbidden a bath on the grounds that he'd fall asleep there). Though briefly annoyed at this injustice – staying standing seemed like hard work - he decided it have probably been for the best. Cleaned up and feeling exhausted but glad to be back, he crawled into his nice, familiar, comfortable bed...

* * *

Shikaku almost thought his son was asleep, but his breathing wasn't heavy enough. 

"Did you pass the second test?"

A sleepy 'yes', then, more coherently " Was eliminated... in the preliminary round. So're Ino and Chouji."

That was an impressive achievement for a four-month-old Genin team.

"You did well to get that far."

He heard Shikamaru shifting, more awake and now awkward.

"Doesn't feel much like it." the boy murmured.

"Did something happen to them?"

"Chouji's... in hospital. He fought a Sand Genin in the preliminary fights. Puncture wound; here." He gestured invisibly in the dark.

"Chouji knew the risks of taking that exam, Shikamaru." Shikaku moved to his son's bedside, "He's not so soft he'd give in to Ino if he wasn't willing to take them. It's not your fault, or hers."

* * *

Shikaku was thoughtful as he went back to the living room, and quiet through dinner. He spoke his mind as he automatically dropped into the routine of clearing the table. 

"Our son's growing up quickly..."

Yoshino looked up, said sharply, "Already putting his life on the line for a qualification?"

"That's true as well," Shikaku was amused by the phrasing, but there was too much real disapproval behind it for him to laugh. "But what I meant was that he's discovered the Nara dilemma."

"Oh? And the Nara dilemma is?"

"That it's not possible to be both a shinobi while keeping hold of a true Nara attitude. Laziness and indifference don't work when you have a team and a responsibility to them..." He had finished clearing the dishes to the sink and wiping down the table, and he sat down at the table, looking at nothing, before finishing what he was saying. "It took me a lot longer to figure that one out."

Yoshino snorted "You _could_ hold on to your indifference. Lots of shinobi seem to..."

"Not as a Nara. We aren't truly indifferent, a truly indifferent Nara wouldn't be acceptable. My family has the common trait of irrational concern for our precious people when they are threatened."

The Nara father sighed, and stood up.

"And now Shikamaru has realised he isn't indifferent to life, he's seen that laziness may not be a tenable attitude."

"You're proud of him, then." Yoshino seemed darkly amused "That's a fucked-up gauge of adulthood."

"I think it's an intelligent way of judging maturity... Shikamaru is a true Nara shinobi."

Yoshino turned from washing dishes up to face her husband, moving towards him almost aggressively: "You've not saying that. You're saying that now you're confident he does care about people."

Shikaku shrugged, not about to argue with his wife. He was mildly surprised when he realised she'd been right. To find a distinction like that was significant. He... hadn't been quite as accepting of his son as he'd thought.

* * *


	10. Heading for Dead

Shikamaru was in his preferred cloud-watching location, the side of the Nara's old meadow-land that was furthest away from Konoha. The distance wasn't what made the spot Shikamaru's favourite, though, so much as the fact it was outside the valley that sheltered Konoha, and consequentially when you lay there on your back, there was nothing but sky in sight.

The Genin lay supine in the grass, enjoying the pleasant state of being utterly unaware of the land around him. The only thing between him and the drifting clouds was a few errant dragonflies, and a hawk that was circling above, just close enough that the colours of its plumage were shown by the sun. It was three days since the Preliminary exams, and Shikamaru had recovered from his physical and mental exhaustion. _Ahh, how relaxing life is in the aftermath of things..._

He appreciated the downtime, delaying his return to shinobi life with a teenager's ability to enjoy rest when it presents itself, putting future problems out of mind and enjoying the stillness while it lasts. He'd even gone so far as to find an old mesh shirt (he'd stopped wearing that style several years ago for the most part), confident that he wouldn't be using chakra and therefore taking the opportunity to get a tanned chest.

He'd visited Chouji in the hospital every day, once meeting Ino there. The blonde had informed him that the final part of the exams would take place a month later, and told him to go to Naruto to find out who was fighting who. (Well, her exact words had been more like "What does it matter to me? I'm only going to go to see Sasuke-kun's fights!")

Shikamaru hadn't seen any of the other Genin, yet. Independent action still seemed too much effort. He let his eyes drift back along with the clouds...

No use in getting hung up over things...

* * *

And remained so, aware of the heat rising around him as morning passed. Shortly after mid-day, the serene scene was broken by a raucous cry. 

"Hey, hey, _Shikamaru!_"

Shikamaru lifted one forearm from the grass in a lazy gesture. He didn't need to look up to know it was Naruto; the old Nara house was out of the village proper, and this was the far side of the Nara lands. Not many people visited him when he was out here, and even if that greeting hadn't given it away, the blond was a fairly common visitor to this secluded spot. A lot of serious conversations between the two had taken place here.

The first had been when they'd been in the academy about a year, though they hadn't been more than passing acquaintances at the time. Shikamaru had found Naruto crouched in his cloud-watching spot (and told him with an infant's panache that the place was _his_, for-your-information, before noticing the other boy had been crying and feeling supremely uncomfortable). Shikamaru hadn't known what to do, and so he'd just lain down a short distance away, and after a few minutes asked Naruto if he wanted to watch the clouds. The blond had done just that, calming down as time passed.

It hadn't been until the sky was dusky and Shikamaru had been thinking about getting up to leave that Naruto had spoken to him. He'd apologised for taking the other's place, and confessed that he'd been running away from the orphanage where he stayed. He'd apparently often visited this field while he was missing school, and hadn't known someone else visited it (owned it, Shikamaru had thought with some indignance, but kept this to himself).

Shikamaru hadn't asked Naruto anything but had been told more anyway. To be honest, he hadn't wanted to hear about the other boy's problems at all, but asking him to be quiet would have upset him again, and then Shikamaru would have felt even more awkward. Seeing someone who was normally blindly happy in an emotionally vulnerable state was scary to six-year-old Shikamaru, and he _liked_ Naruto even if he was an idiot. So he listened, and Naruto had kept coming to the side of the Nara's field – the only place in Konoha where the Hokages' faces weren't at all visible. When Shikamaru saw him there he wouldn't mind, because even if he couldn't really relax to watch the clouds. Naruto wasn't unpleasant company, and he'd only spend time in there when he was in a thoughtful mood.

Well, he was generally in a brooding mood when he showed up, but it made little difference - Naruto seemed to abide by unspoken rules: spending time with Shikamaru, he'd be still, and speak calmly. Shikamaru supposed it was a time-out for the commonly hyperactive blond. But despite being someone who valued solitude highly, he slowly deduced that while for him being alone was very different than it was for Naruto. The former was part of a family, the latter had lived unhappily in an orphanage without making connections, until he moved at the age of eight into his own apartment. If hanging around Shikamaru in comfortable silence was something that Naruto was comforted by doing, Shikamaru wouldn't begrudge him that.

This odd companionship built a trust between the two of them which stayed constant through their youth. However, they weren't close friends at the academy – in fact, most of the communication that took place between them there was the blond asking for answers. But that didn't bother Shikamaru - Naruto was an essentially sociable creature, and the lazy ninja wouldn't expect him to stay calm for long when there were people to pester or tease or prank.

(When Shikamaru had learnt about the Kyuubi no Kitsune, he'd wondered if he had an obligation to tell Naruto. On the one hand, Naruto trusted him; on the other, Naruto would be happier not having to reconcile his already screwed up view of his dad with this whole business. He'd decided there was no reason for him to ever find out, although he wasn't quite sure whether it was because of his concern for Naruto's mental well-being or his own cowardice.)

* * *

But Naruto's visit today was didn't seem to be in hopes of an impromptu counselling session. The grin on the prankster ninja's face attested to that. 

"Ne, come with me to the hospital! I want to give Chouji the food I made for him," He waved something in Shikamaru's face "but I don't like going to hospitals, and you're his team-mate so you should come visit him too!"

Shikamaru sighed, but rolled over and got to his feet. Naruto's idea of logic was so bothersome. And - he'd cooked food for Chouji. Shikamaru dreaded to think what it'd be like. Oh well, a visit wasn't a bad idea. It wasn't likely that there'd be anyone else there, even though it wasn't yet the much-anticipated Akimichi lunch break yet. _And Naruto's cooking would scare any gourmand off_, he thought sardonically.

* * *

They reached the hospital together, only to find Chouji asleep, an unfamiliar Akimichi woman sitting by his side. By silent agreement, they left before she noticed them. 

As they walked back down the corridor, Naruto frowned, making a thoughtful noise.

"Neh, Shikamaru, d'you think Sasuke-bastard's still here?"

"Tch, I thought you said he couldn't have visitors..." Shikamaru didn't really want to spend time with the Uchiha whether or not he was allowed them, but on the other hand he didn't really want to head back after walking all the way here.

"Aa, but there wasn't anyone at the reception desk!" Naruto said, holding up a hand and grinning "Sooo, we can just go look for him!"

"Your plans are always so troublesome."

He followed Naruto anyway. _Geez, I'm like his minder. Stupid sense of duty that makes me want to keep the hospital intact... _

"So what did you make for Chouji anyway? Aren't you meant to be training?"

"Well" Said Naruto, and Shikamaru recognised the signs of him launching into a speech "I didn't want to work with the closet-pervert (who Kakashi told me to work with because he's a jerk and been put in charge of ANBU security stuff but I bet he's working with Sasuke anyway-ttebayo!) and Aunti-sensei is waaay too far away to go visit, and I met this uber-old super-pervert guy who knew my dad but he was being a jerk and wouldn't train me so I asked Iruka-sensei what I should do and he said I had to listen to Ebisu-san but I got cooked" - Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, but didn't really want to know - "so he said spend an hour doing something else but Ichikaru's was shu-ut – so unfair! - and I was making myself Instant Ramen and think how sad it is not to have ramen and then I thought I bet Chouji needs food, that'd be good since I was kinda worried about him...

"Aaaand so! I was gonna cook something cool and nice for him, but I realised he could probably get food like that from his family, and they'd be better at making stuff like that than me." he pouted, then his face lit up as if the idea had occurred anew to him again "So then I thought, what could be better than a gift of my own, unique, Kazama-Naruto-trademarked-dish!

"You... made up a meal?" Shikamaru felt a sense of impending doom.

"Not just a meal, a whole new food!" Naruto's face was scarily enthusiastic. "Ramen-cake!"

"What?" _O lord. What on earth has he made?_

"I put rice and egg with water in with the instant ramen, and cooked it... and then I put flour in until it set! It's amazing and it's gonna be the next big thing! If you're lucky, I'll cook some for--"

He stopped abruptly, frowning with intensity.

"There's something!"

"There's lots of things, it's a hospital. What's wrong?"

But Naruto just took off at a run.

* * *

AN: Naruto hasn't yet convinced Jiraiya to train him. He's somewhat less desperate for tuition and has worked with Ebisu before, so he's content to work with the subpar closet pervert for now. If you read that rant carefully, he's been learning water walking, but sans Kyuubi-healing he's had to go and take time off to avoid being par-boiled. And this has lead to him developing a career in cooking. 

I hope Naruto's weird rapport with Shikamaru isn't too trite. Remember that though he isn't ostracised like his is in canon, he's pitied and compared to his father constantly. Which is not something he enjoys.


	11. Catalysis

Shikamaru sighed, and broke into a run himself. Naruto was strange, but he didn't react like that for no reason. He was a good ninja, and he was behaving as if in reaction to a threat.

Shikamaru hadn't figured it out yet when the blond dashed through an open door, leaping forward with a yell.

As the shadow-user warily entered the room, a strange tableau met his eyes. The Sound ninja Zaku was crouched on the far side of a hospital bed he'd evidently been in, clutching his heavily bandaged hand. Gaara of the Sand stood on the opposite side of it, hands clamped to his head as if he was defending against some mental agony. He was surrounded by sand that swirled around him, some of it reaching out towards the cowering Sound-nin. And Naruto was in a defensive posture atop the bed between them; having thrown himself between the two, he was now crouching in readiness for an attack.

Typical of Naruto to get involved in something like this. He's such an – _alturist_.

Naruto had looked confused by Gaara's evident pain, but the situation changed as Gaara's hands returned to his sides, and he stood up, looking straight at Naruto with the focussed posture of a predator. Shikamaru couldn't see the Suna-nin's expression, but Naruto shifted uneasily.

"Why do you – protect him?!" demanded Gaara.

Shikamaru took a step back, even though he was in the doorway and facing away from the red-haired maniac. There was deep vehemence in that voice, and the cloud-watching ninja realised Gaara was another of those people who believed in something irrationally. Somehow he doubted Gaara's convictions were as morally sound as Naruto's.

"_Why_ are you trying to kill him? You won the fight, didn't you?" The Yondaime's son spoke with an intensity that made him sound authoritative, older than his twelve years. "This isn't rivalry, and_ there's no need to continue it_."

The Sand ninja shifted, body language indifferent, voice now blank. "He lost. His life is worthless, and I want him dead, so I'll kill him."

"That's CRAZY!" Naruto shouted, now as unnerved as Shikamaru was.

"I might kill you. If you continue to bore me, I will."

The sand tendrils that had been shifting purposelessly headed towards Naruto and the Sound-nin, who had been moving steadily away from his blond saviour. Shikamaru reluctantly prepared himself. _It's troublesome, but it can't be avoided. Time to intervene. _

The window of the room was open, the sun shining through, and it only took a small shift sideways until Gaara was standing neatly between it and Shikamaru. So he focussed, lifted his hands in a seal, looked meaningfully at Naruto, and then stepped forwards, swinging his shadow around into Gaara's.

The Sand shinobi had been raising his hand, and he shuddered and hissed something startled. Shikamaru looked at Naruto again, indicating with his head at the injured Sound man. Naruto nodded reluctantly and lifted the foreign ninja onto his shoulders, directing him round Gaara. Zaku, obviously terrified of Gaara, wasn't cooperating, so Naruto was pretty much dragging him across the room. _Why does Naruto want to save this prick?_

They seemed to move very slowly, and Shikamaru was disgustingly on edge, wishing he could see Gaara's face; tremors were running through the red-haired boy, so much that the gourd on his back was shivering with them. The Nara kept feeling the urge to raise his hands to his face, provoked by sympathetic feedback across the jutsu. Why does he want to do that? _He's clearly unstable, but what exactly's wrong with him? _

Shikamaru planned. _Talk to him. Assert control through language; since he's dangerous as hell my only hope is to stop this descending into a fight. I have a psychological advantage because of the bind, but I'm not sure how well I can read him. If I turned us to face the other, I'd lose out on the intimidation thing; I can't do the whole determined thing Naruto does and this Gaara scares me enough already. _

Still, he could try to beat him in a discussion of philosophy: "Why should you judge who's worthless?"

There was a moment's silence, but Gaara's cold voice rang out, composed despite the fact his fingers were twitching spasmodically.

"Those who are weak are worthless. Only those who can hurt me are significant to me." _Geez... he really is screwed up, but that attitude isn't a reflection of childhood abuse and neglection, I'll _volunteer_ for something_...

There was a pause, then Gaara spoke again: "The boy who hit me, what was his name?"

"Kazama Naruto." He could find that out anywhere anyway.

"I will kill him. Let me go."

"I'm not going to do that. I'm protecting Naruto, you see."

"_Why?!_ Because his life has value for you?" That had evidently struck a nerve, Gaara was stung and spiteful, and Shikamaru read jealousy under the hatred.

"Kazama Naruto – the son of the dead Hokage." There was a malevolent determination in his tone. "I'll definitely kill him, then. You see, I'm also the son of a Kage. But I have never been protected, even though I was valuable to my village ... I am- Sabaku no Gaara, the ultimate weapon of the Hidden Village of Sand!"

_A weapon..._ That sounded ominous. Shikamaru couldn't quite bring himself to ask about it, and so he forced acerbic sarcasm into his voice.

"Oh, poor you." (and he genuinely disliked people using the excuse of their own mistreatment to justify mistreating others, even if this was a taunt) "No-one's ever defended you, so you hate Naruto for being defended."

He couldn't see Gaara's reaction, so he forced himself to continue.

"Well, you misunderstand our relationship! I didn't step in to protect someone who was valuable to the village, but someone precious to me. And if you'll seek revenge on him for being protected, you're an idiot. That won't help fix whatever's in your past.

"Besides, he's entering the Chuunin exam, and you can wait till then to fight him if you're petulant enough to strike out at someone you consider luckier than you"

"I'll - kill you – both!" O_n the one hand, _Shikamaru thought drily, _my__taunts are working - but on the other, this guy's going to rip me apart as soon as he escapes the Kagemane. What next?  
_

The enraged Suna-Nin was struggling against the bind now, chakra combating Shikamaru's own. But the Kagemane was designed for efficiency – generations of Nara had put time into reducing the amount of effort needed to perform their specialised jutsu. You needed hugely more chakra than the person holding you to even be able to shift a finger against the binding when the caster is trying to stop you from doing so. He was letting the other ninja speak, and not stopping his shuddering and shaking, but everything else was under tight control.

"Let – me – go! My victims; the blood! -" The sand that had quiesced while its master was under the Kagemane suddenly began frenzied movement "-Arrrrugh!"

Shikamaru flinched at the scream, but kept a hold on the bind. It felt like Gaara was attacking himself now, instead of the bind; strangely, the struggles he'd made against the Nara paralysis had redirect--

Then inhuman chakra flooded into Shikamaru through the medium of the control jutsu. He yelled, feeling his chakra pathways overloaded from inside. _Fuck, fuck, it hurts!_ But Naruto wasn't out safely yet, and he'd never be able to escape a berserk Gaara while carrying that Sound guy! Shikamaru grimly bought his fingers back up into the primary Kagemane seal, concentrating his will to keep Gaara frozen in place even as his chakra circulation system was overrun.

"You're! - Not leaving." _finish speaking! _"This room. - Until. _I let you go!_"

He gritted his teeth, vision blacking out as Gaara – _or_ _something else_ – laughed harshly. He'd called himself a weapon; the control over sand had seemed strange to Shikamaru – for anyone normal the movement of the grains would have to be separately maintained, and the absent orbiting motion of the sand would require effort; an explanation was forming in Shikamaru's mind, rooted in the fact that this horrible chakra wasn't human, it was fixed both in the sand and in Gaara. Hideous truth was dawning on the Kyuubi's host.

Pain. He was burning up from inside, muscles tensed involuntarily but unable to even affect his chakra system, which was – remember, an interlinked network independent of the lymph and vascular system, connected to tissues and external regions through tenketsu. Inaccessible to foreign bodies except through specialised medical jutsu. But his system had been infiltrated because he was affecting Gaara's - the demon's – chakra with his bind. It was like genjutsu being turned on the caster... he was unaware of anything other than himself and Gaara, like he was under genjutsu. It was only the effect of excruciating pain, though. (he would laugh at that, but he was locked in place). He'd tried to turn his head to see if Naruto was around – he couldn't think how long they'd been standing locked there - and he felt like he was bound into place himself. He looked out of the corner of his eye, though his vision was starred and dark. No orange to indicate Naruto. Eyes flicking back with an angry resolve he could see his movements mirrored in Gaara's. Part of his face was – cracked? - marred where Naruto had punched him, and his eyes were traced by veins and mad.

"LET ME GO!!"

Shikamaru held his hands up to his head. A second shout followed the first, but nausea and the rhythm of his heart and the pain shooting through his chakra pathways in time with it made it distant. _Fuck, I can't keep this up._ But he couldn't disengage the bind, he wasn't using his chakra, it must have all been forced out or subsumed by this other thing. His legs might have been locked in a reversal of the bind, but it could have been pain or terror paralysing them.

Then, for a long, long moment, his awareness of the chakra coils through his body was sharpened, as if (he deduced, feeling total terror and imminent death for the first time ever,) the alien chakra occupying them had met some kind of key point. He felt faint, then completely frozen in a way that made the immobility of a second ago seem relaxed. Then violent red overtook his vision, and for a second twin burning eyes in a giant vulpine face met his.


	12. Oddfellow's Local 151

Naruto had dashed back after leaving Zaku in a room with Kiba, whose arm had been broken fighting Lee and who Naruto _really hoped_ wouldn't kill the Oto-nin until he'd retrieved Shikamaru, (he chucked the ramen-cake for Chouji down as well, wondering why he'd held onto it thus far anyway). He heard Shikamaru's pained yell and Gaara's insane and furious screaming from down the hallway, and careened into the room to be met with the sight of them still in mirrored positions. Neither seemed to notice his presence.

But -

"Shikamaru!!"

Moving towards the dark-haired Genin, he could see his friend was frozen rigid, tendons standing out in his neck and hands. His face was pale under his tan, and sweat rolled down his face. He was grimacing, teeth drawn back, the scars across his cheeks taking on a fearsome appearance in the mad determination that transformed him.

But before Naruto had taken two steps towards him, the Nara snapped forward into a fighting stance, and as he did so, red energy exploded from him.

Gaara had started forward in synchrony – scarcely noticed by Naruto - but then he abruptly fell backwards, dropping against the bed with a look of amazement and maybe even horror.

For a second, the room stayed caught in the glare of the crimson light; it deepened Gaara's hair to a bloody hue, but gave his skin a far more natural tone. Naruto hadn't realised before that Gaara was the same age as them; softened by the light and a kind of shocked awe, his face was rounded and innocent. Shikamaru looked harsher, the vivid aura transfiguring him into a dark, savage, red-eyed creature.

Then the unnatural light faded.

Gaara's eyes were wide, the black that edged them making them appear even more rounded.

"You're..." His voice was murmuring, amazed, "the same as me!"

Shikamaru's posture remained aggressive, though strained, and when the Nara spoke it was with resolve.

"You're wrong." His voice held forced strength, "I've never killed anyone, I've never tried to. I see_ no _similarity."

He turned, and walked out of the door, not looking back at his opponent. Naruto was still standing just a few steps in front of the exit, and he followed Shikamaru out, casting a glance back to where Gaara was sitting dumbly on the floor. Then he headed out, running to catch up.

* * *

Shikamaru had forced himself to get out of Gaara's sight independently, well aware of that bluffs relied on shows of strength. As they moved further down the corridor, adrenaline and determination waned; he felt dizzy, sporadically losing awareness of his surroundings as his vision wavered and legs threatened to give out. 

Naruto was looking concerned, and he moved unasked to support him. They didn't speak until they reached the ground floor of the hospital, where Naruto deposited him into a waiting-room chair.

There was a moment of stillness, awkward for the blond, as Shikamaru's eyes drifted half-shut, unfocussed. Naruto stuck his face forward, frowning.

"OK, just what happened back there?! You look weird, more ill than hurt at least ... Oi, Shikamaru, look at me, dammit, you with me, here? You look like you're going to faint or something!"

Shikamaru grimaced, but made the effort to move overexerted muscles and look up at the worried Genin. He felt pretty much like Naruto had surmised he did, and the noisy exclamations weren't helping at _all_.

"Heh, at least we're in a hospital already!" The blond's laugh seemed far too loud. Even his breathing seemed intrusive, and it was weird because he didn't really have a headache. No, every other part of Shikamaru felt like it had been burnt or boiled from the inside, but his head was mostly OK. Whatever. He wasn't an expert on the any of the various things that'd gone wrong in the last quarter of an hour.

The thought of that spurred Shikamaru to actually process the ending of the confrontation. He'd been influenced to want to_ kill_ Gaara, and that scared him. It had taken a supreme mental effort to stand down, dismiss the blazing chakra that had reanimated him and overrode the barrier. It had taken an almost inconceivable physical determination to walk out of there without stumbling or leaning on anything. He wanted to let go, give in to the overwhelming weariness.

Naruto was still peering at him concernedly, having repeated his inquiries. _Oh, fuck. Reply to the noisy, indiscreet son of the Yondaime. I have to tell him something, don't I. _

He leaned back, feeling the urge to make his thinking hand sign but concious that'd give his dishonesty away. _Stay close to the truth_.

"I'm not certain what happened. I was holding him in the shadow bind when he went crazy, and-" If his conjecture about Gaara was correct, someone would tell Naruto at some point, so he may as well mention it now, pretending ignorance.

"-I think what happened was, there was a whole second chakra source – in him, or in that sand – and it – lashed out at me through the Kagemane's links.

"And it's fucked up my chakra somehow. People's tenketsu and channels aren't meant to be all overrun like that."

"So what happened to you, when you went all red?"

"I – I don't really know. I'd – guess, hypothesise – that it's something to do with the fact your body reflexively tries to push out unnatural things. That and the fact blood is used in kinjutsu – maybe it was some kind of – violent natural defense against whatever Gaara did. Instinctive, perhaps. I really don't know, though."

Naruto looked thoughtful, but Shikamaru was pale-faced and strained still, so he put the matter aside.

"Well, are you okay?"

"I think I'll be fine. I'll go home, and sleep."

"You sure don't _look_ fine! You sure you don't need to stay here, Shikamaru? You should probably ask a medic-nin to have a look at you, at least."

"_No!_" Sudden vehemence, Shikamaru did not want this ... episode to be bought to Konoha's notice. "Just help me get home, Naruto. Please."

Naruto looked dubious, and Shikamaru had to repeat himself several times – and mention the current lack of staff - before they finally left the hospital.

He was tired beyond comprehension, in a far worse state than he'd been after the Chuunin exams. How silly it had been to think they were real grown-up ninja, when that was just them playing games. The reality of a confrontation had been so different; he'd hurt Gaara, just by talking, and turning and walking away had been more of a victory – in an empty, terrifying, temporary way – than Naruto demanding his surrender with laughing eyes had been.

And now there was another issue. He leant his weight on the Yondaime's son, and hoped it wouldn't have to be dealt just yet.

* * *

So, the first confrontation between the two demon-hosts is this. I tried to kind of mirror the canon version of it, and I hope it came off okay. Also, see the hints of how the Kyuubi issue is going to be a BIG THING between Naruto and Shikamaru? I hope you do. 

(And no, the title has no relevance. I just couldn't think of one. Should have called it 'Shiny Happy People', now I come to think of it)

Please review! This poor author needs encouragement to write the section between the finals. It'll include Shikamaru stressing over various Kyuubi-induced problems, Team Ten making a joint decision, Jiraiya being a suspicious bastard, and Temari. And Ino. And jealousy.


	13. Just Sleep

Welcome to chapter 13. Thanks for reviewing the last one (to those who did, that is), and please prepare for MASSIVE OVERDESCRIPTION. I decided Shikamaru's house needed to be written about in excruciating detail - mostly because of reading too much by Thomas Hardy - and this has been done. It may occur to you that - hey, that doesn't sound like very japanese - but I've decided the Nara need to be weird and have obscure backstory, and made one up. It will probably not come into the story in any detail, but it exists in my mind. In brief, they were nomadic but lazy deer herding bums with great tribal wisdom, but they eventually settled on the edge of the village of Konoha when the deer stopped there, and one of them was claimed as a husband by a pushy kunoichi. This lead to the cunning idea of building a fence round the deer, and the Nara clan was thus linked to the village until several generations later it became entirely static. Their house is a remnant of that time and the gradual development of the Nara into a Konoha clan.

Well, that's just my whimsical version of events. If you need an excuse for my deviation from Japanese traditional aesthetics for their house, there it is. They're weird and historically foreigners. If not, you probably didn't read that note anyway and thus won't care.

* * *

Naruto had never before entered the Nara's house itself (since both he and Shikamaru both preferred the outside), and he was vaguely apprehensive about what his friend's parents would say when he brought their semi-conscious son home. He opened the door, then led them through it with a vaguely nervous look around. 

Shikamaru's house was seemed large, but this was mostly because it was sprawling, freely expansive outside Konoha proper. It was entirely on one story (except for a cellar, but that was mostly forgotten), and had been extended sporadically over the years whenever a Nara husband had been successfully bullied into doing so by his wife.

Naruto entered, holding Shikamaru's arm over his shoulder and adjusting their combined weights to keep the drained boy from hitting any walls in the confined space. Hmm, the hallway was smart, and more modern than he would have expected. Naruto peered into the glass-fronted door to a lounge-like room, then backed out as he saw a figure there. He moved to head past the occupied room, but Shikamaru shook his head and gestured in the other direction.

The hallway ran what seemed to be the length of the house, broken by an alcove that contained various shoes, above which assorted weaponry hung on a rack. The floor was polished wood, with a noticeable join between the side of the house with the living-room (pale and newly laid) and the older, age-darkened and less regular panel flooring on the other.

Shikamaru indicated a room at the end of this older section. The sliding door opened to reveal, in partial darkness, a strangely furnished room; prominent was a huge table like an overgrown picnic bench, running nearly clear from one side of the room to the other. It was almost black with varnish, and the wood was at probably two inches thick. The whole construction had the air of something crudely hand-made, and Naruto guessed it was a Nara heirloom of a kind. (He wondered what it'd be like to have a family like that, old and hardly changed and stable.)

He realised he'd paused in the doorway, and looked around the rest of the room. What did Shikamaru to do here? The walls of this room were built from stone on two sides, one with a fire-place set in the wall, covered by moss. It hadn't been cold enough to warrant a fire in Konoha in Naruto's lifetime. There was a thick mat, more like a rug, by the fire-place, and then past that there was a sofa-like couch, which, crammed in the side of the room, seemed rather dwarfed by the table. Naruto and Shikamaru moved towards this.

Shikamaru dropped onto the couch, relief evident in every facet of his appearance. The room was refreshingly cool in the darkness, being mostly stone, and he tilted his face back, eyes hooded and dark in the shadows and a faint smile on his face. Naruto looked for a light-switch, unnerved slightly by the darkness, and Shikamaru pointed to what the other Genin took a minute to identify as shutters. It was a fairly difficult operation, but he unlatched the wooden constructions. The things were made of frequently-over-painted wood, chipped to reveal a strata of different paints. They were made from wooden slats, and as the blond ninja opened them partly, stripes of bright sun fell across the room.

Naruto explored the room, enchanted by the archaic and outlandish habitat. It was so different from the mass-produced apartments, and the clinical orphanage. He crawled under the table, and discovered crayon scribbles on its underside; the fireplace was covered on the inside in soot-black cobwebs...

Shikamaru looked out of the window, seeing little more than green and blue sliced up by the blurs of the shutters. He drifted mentally, wanting Naruto to leave. He couldn't think of a way to tell him, or a way to avoid it.

So they occupied themselves for a few minutes, until Yoshino wandered down the hall, used to her son's tendency to return without announcing himself. She noticed the ajar door, headed for it. And stopped, seeing bright blond hair radiant in the sun.

* * *

Naruto took a second to react to the change in lighting as the door opened, then spun round in alarm. 

"Gah!" He jumped back as he met the intense stare of a dark haired woman at the door. "Sorry for showing up uninvited, heheheh..."

The mother of Shikamaru Nara was taller than average, dressed carelessly. Her cropped dark hair fell in irregular curls, the front held back by a plain band, the ends curling back towards her angular face. She had thick-lashed eyes under dark eyebrows, and it was clear she had been a handsome woman, albeit not in a conventional way. She was at that mid-point of life where the old and young are both visible in the same face; where creases marring a woman's skin can recede in prominence or advance, depending on the light or the partiality of a watcher. Facing Kazama Naruto, she frowned, and the Genin saw a mother in her controlled but impatient confusion.

"You must be Kazama Naruto." He resisted the urge to make a run for freedom under her penetrating gaze, nodding and apologising.

"Just _what_ happened?" Said she, advancing to her son's side with obvious concern, placing a hand on his forehead. The demand reminded him of Iruka when he was in trouble, and as she looked back at Naruto, her eyes were lit to intensity by the light that striped through the slats.

"Ah, well...This scary guy Gaara in the hospital, he attacked this other guy who he'd been against in the Preliminary rounds, and he'd surrendered, but Gaara was trying to kill him. So we intervened but when Shikamaru used the_ kagemane no jutsu_ it backfired and--"

"Naruto," Shikamaru added his opinion, emphatically despite the distant tone. "My mum isn't a ninja, she doesn't want a - play-by-play of the whole event"

He looked up at her "Basically, this guy Gaara did something to damage my chakra system. I'll be fine if I rest."

"But, Shikamaaaaru!"

"There's _no need _to worry, okay?"

"Shikamaru, I did not raise my son to speak like that to his friends! It was very kind of Kazama-kun to bring you all the way back here, and you will thank him, please."

Shikamaru looked somewhat abashed, but mostly just ill.

"Thanks, Naruto."

"Uh, I'll... just go now." The blond scratched the back of his neck, feeling out of place with the Nara matriarch, before forcefully reasserting his cheerfulness: "You'd better get better soon, though, so you can see me kick that bastard Neji's ass!"

Shikamaru hadn't known this was who Naruto was fighting, but he nodded tiredly anyway. He would be polite and grateful to the blond later; for now, he felt only relief at his departure.

* * *

Yoshino showed Shikamaru's friend to the door, not certain what to make of the Yondaime's son. She'd been struck by his resemblance to his father, and when he'd turned to face her she'd been half-terrified to meet his eyes, feeling memories of the other Kazama man and his similar gaze. 

The memories had been almost instantly expelled by the reality of a twelve-year-old boy, guilty and sincere and awkward. She genuinely liked him, warming to the kid in a way that was rare for her.

In the doorway, she thanked him for looking after her son. He looked down, sheepish.

"If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been in the fight."

"Heh, someone needs to get those lazy bastards off their bums, right?" She stopped short of saying it wasn't his fault, because despite her instinctive like of the child, she had unwillingly drawn comparisons between this issue and the other matter that hung between the two families. She slid her hands into her pockets, willing herself to smile nicely at him.

"It was nice to meet you, despite the circumstances. Well, anyway, goodbye. Good luck in the exam!"

He grinned broadly, and headed off at a run. She watched with melancholy as the bright shock of hair disappeared down the track, sighed, and headed back to Shikamaru.


	14. J'en pense

While Yoshino had showed Naruto out, Shikamaru had taken advantage of her absence to get to his room and bed, and fallen asleep with a vague smugness that he now didn't have to explain himself to his mother. _Heh_. He should have made the effort to do so, really, but it was even more troublesome than the exam had been. And involved a subject that was definitely too touchy to bring up when he wasn't thinking clearly. He still didn't know how much Naruto had noticed, or what he'd heard of the verbal exchanges between him and Gaara.

* * *

At three in the afternoon on the next day, Yoshino was in her son's room. Her son lay fully clothed on top of the covers of his bed, breathing heavy and regular. This wasn't just laziness, and she was torn between parental over-concern and unwillingness to wake him when he obviously needed the rest. 

She frowned, and forced her worries to the back of her mind. She'd wake him up for dinner.

* * *

At half four, Shikamaru woke up. Years of practised laziness had suppressed the urge to shift as he woke up, but even for a slacker bum like him the heaviness of his limbs was unnatural. For a while, he lay on his back, very aware of the sound of his mother walking around in the next room and the wind tapping the window. His eyes stayed shut, lids heavy. Gradually, he remembered what had happened, and memories sped up his heartrate. _Crap_. Sabaku no Gaara had some form of demon sand-thing inside him. It had attacked him. He'd somehow retaliated with the Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakra. 

This was not the kind of thing that a devoted avoider of attention wanted. There would be troublesome consequences somehow or other...

The skill of planning came in handy. Shikamaru made a mental list of things to do:

_One: Demon chakra. I should find out more about that. Will I go crazy and/or possessed if something like that happens again? ...Could it change what I look like? Break the seal?_

_Two: Gaara. He's probably now wanting to start a fight with me, since he's an ego-maniac and doubtless unhappy that someone walked away from a confrontation with him alive. Also, I was all protective of Naruto, so he'll think I'm stronger than him. Which is neither true nor a useful assumption for him to make. Also, he knows about the demon fox. And will probably mention it inconveniently. Need to find a plan to deal with him somehow. _

_Three, and most worrying: Naruto. He's going to find out about the Kyuubi! _

No, think logically:

_Naruto is far too likely to talk to people about my bullshit explanation. This'll lead to other people figuring out what happened to me (and telling him). Need to convince him to forget it. Try by seeming all recovered and playing it down; if that fails make up better explanation and/or pretend it was a secret family jutsu. _

Hmm... those weren't the best plans ever made by Nara-kind, but they'd do for now. Shikamaru shut his eyes and lowered his hands out of the thinking posture, and returned to sleep.

* * *

When his mother came back, several hours later, he was sleeping more lightly and was consequently awakened by her footsteps. He looked up at her, and sighed as he realised she'd really been anxious at his long sleep. _Women, making me feel guilty..._

She didn't mention her worry, though, and they fell into a routine argument, him protesting as she criticised his indolence. He agreed to be down in five minutes for dinner, and wondered if he should tell them the details of the incident.

Shikaku Nara looked closely at him as he joined them at the table.

"You should always remember that the Kagemane can be used against you, son. I warned you before, an opponent with too much chakra can trap you by pushing against the binds with enough energy that you waste all your strength into the maintenance of the bind, and begin drawing on the energy that keeps your body functioning. It doesn't seem that that's what's happened, but remember you need to careful where you use it. Besides, giving away how you fight in a minor disagreement means you don't have that advantage when you need it for real."

Shikamaru nodded vaguely, now hungry. _It hadn't been a 'minor disagreement'_. Besides, his father had given him almost the same speech back when he'd first taught him the jutsu, but it was easier to nod and not mention that.

"Shikamaru, pay attention to your father!" Oops.

"Sorry, I'm still a tad sleepy..."

"Anyway" Yoshino said, sharp enough to imply her continuing displeasure with her son while moving on, "Rumiko's should be back the start of next week, and she is staying here after all."

"She's coming back?" Shikamaru concentrated and tried to engage in normal conversation. "Isn't her contract with the tour folk for the rest of the year?"

"She's got a post with a group escorting official guests to the Chuunin exams, we got the letter while you were away in the forest. I told you about it three days ago, Shikamaru."

_Oh, okay._ "Whatever."

"You can help us clear out her room tomorrow, if you're recovered."

He nodded, enjoying the food. A small price to pay for normality, and maybe he could speak to Rumiko about the problem of Gaara.

"Is there anyone we know in the exams, Shikamaru? Your father and I were wondering if it'd be worth going and watch it together, but to be honest I'm reconsidering now I know you and your team are out."

He shook his head, chewing.

"Not really."

"Your friend Naruto said he was fighting a Hyuuga boy, didn't he?"

"Yeah, Neji. Uchiha Sasuke's there as well."

Shikaku frowned, still stuck on a previous name. "The Kazama boy was here?"

Yoshino nodded, amused. "He seemed nice enough. I'd cheer for him against that Hyuuga misanthrope."

Shikaku shook his head, knowing not to contradict his wife's distaste for the Hyuuga. "Fine. The other competitors are... Maito Gai's student; a strong candidate from Sound, Dosu; an Aburame boy..."

"The bug clan?" Yoshino was vaguely supportive of anyone that weird on principle.

"Mum, you've lived here longer than me, you _can't_ still be as ignorant as you act."

Yoshino whacked him over the head.

"Well, the bug-kid'll be amusing. All those foreigner-snobs, freaking out at once..."

Shikamaru had a mental image of his mom, hanging around his sister, losing her her job by mocking the ladies of Fire Country's gentry...

"So we have Leaf and Sound, the other finalists must be those Sand thugs. What do we know about them?"

Shikaku thought for a minute.

"The Sand put emphasis on using equipment; battle puppets and similar, like the Genin who fought Chouji uses. The Sand entrants are all dangerous, _particularly_ Sabaku no Gaara."

Shikamaru's mum looked at his dad, covert, and he had the distinct impression that they'd discussed Gaara in while he was asleep. So Konoha's shinobi knew about the Sand ninja being a demon vessel, he guessed. He felt a distaste at this; his parents had been worried about the demon-containing Sand representative? They hadn't mentioned him to Shikamaru. May as check for information, and see much they'd tell him about the whole issue. He didn't want to hide what had happened in the hospital, but he couldn't think how he could say it out loud. But think about Gaara, for now.

"What's so dangerous about Gaara?"

Shikaku's hand tensed around his sake glass. He hesitated before answering tersely.

"It'd hardly be fair to give that information to you to share with his opponents."

He knew when his father was insisting on dropping a subject, though it was something he more commonly heard when his mother or sister pressed too hard on the yielding Nara ambivalence. Shikamaru didn't like hearing it then, realising this was a sign that the topic of demons and their hosts could not easily be raised.

Yoshino moved the conversation on rapidly, and Shikamaru sat brooding as his parents discussed the fences for the deer, which were old and rotting, and needed replacement.

The Nara son was annoyed at his father's evasion of the matter of Gaara. Gaara was a dangerous guy, and in the shinobi world what you didn't know definitely could hurt you. What was the point in keeping something like that from him; it wasn't as if he wasn't aware of his own situation, and they didn't know that, but the parallels between the two wouldn't be obvious to him if he didn't know. Why hide it; because they were uncomfortable with the matter? His parents were his parents, they weren't hostile like the villagers were; would they rather pretend the Kyuubi wasn't sealed in him? That was a stupid way to cope with a problem, though, and his parents weren't stupid.

That night, he couldn't sleep. Personal dilemma was something rare in Shikamaru's life, and staring at the wall he found it hard to resist the urge to go and lie and watch the moon. Looking for clouds at night would be ... foolish.

This situation, he thought, would be far easier if he told his parents he was aware of the secret about himself. But as a self-confessed coward, didn't want to confront the issue. He had decided to run from the issue as long as he could when it first became known to him. It was easier to keep running now.

But it had to be done at some point, and it would be easier now than in a crisis.


	15. Welcome to the Occupation

The next morning found Shikamaru in his cloud-watching spot, doing what could only be described as brooding. He couldn't decide what to do. Uncharacteristically, and almost as if the concerns he'd spoken of to Chouji in the aftermath of the preliminaries had come true, he couldn't dismiss his worries enough to enjoy watching the clouds drift past. Maybe it was some relict of the fox's chakra, maybe it was paranoia in the wake of the terrifying experience of paralysis, but he seemed far more aware than was normal of his surroundings. Bird's calls and the buzzing of insects were intrusively loud in his ears, and the slightest movement caught his attention.

Ino came to meet him in his field, armed with resolve to force teamwork onto her team. The sole female of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio marched over, flushed from the walk across up the hill to his spot.

"_Fine_ then! Not even a hello-how-are-you for the time I spent getting over here! Moron Naruto, telling Sakura tall stories about you!" Irate, she flung herself on the ground next to him, pausing only to smooth her skirt.

The gossip grape-vine of the Rookies seems to be hard at work, thought Shikamaru sardonically.

"So did you really own that Gaara guy with some weird jutsu?" Ino chirped, animosity put aside for curiosity's sake.

_Naruto. Discretion. These words are strangers to each other. _

Shikamaru pulled himself up, facing her. Hm, she wasn't wearing her usual outfit. She had on a layered skirt in shades of green, and a black strappy top. Compliment clothing to distract her? No, such things tended to backfire when said to Ino. Easiest to fill her in on the incident. The edited and demon-fox-free version, that is.

"Naruto's exaggerating. We saw Gaara threatening Zaku, and Naruto jumped in the way. It looked like they were both going to get crushed by that sand of his, so I distracted Gaara while he dragged that Zaku out of the line of fire."

Ino snorted, presumably deriding Naruto's tendency towards heroism.

"Whatever. Come see Chouji with me, since you missed him before. Team Ten, compulsory meeting in the hospital!"

Shikamaru got to his feet. That's right, two days had passed since he'd last seen Chouji.

* * *

Ino was determined to make conversation with her companion, who was still buried in his glum thoughts. 

"Have you heard about the match-ups for the finals? Sasuke's up against whoever wins in the fight between Aburame and the Sound guy."

"Naruto's fighting Hyuuga Neji." He spoke absently.

"Oooh, that'll be interesting!" Ino bounced on her heels. "Neji's hot but he's a prick, and even if Naruto's goofy he's no pushover, plus that Sannin guy's training him. I heard that Neji was the best in his year, though, and he has the whole bloodline limit thing going for him..."

Sannin? One of the three legendary ninja? Naruto had mentioned a pervert who claimed to have taught his father, on recollection.

"The other matches sound dull as hell, that Sand girl Temari's fighting her brother, and the other Sand's against the eyebrow-freak..."

* * *

Chouji was awake, and looking better. He greeted them warmly, albeit with a slightly embarrassed air, and Ino grinned as she handed him the pair of daffodils she'd been hiding behind her back. Chouij smiled genuinely, even if he didn't really understand why he'd want inedible flowers. Shikamaru cleared the discarded crisp packets off his friend's bedside table, and the hospitalised genin got the point enough to dump the flowers down there. Shikamaru pulled up a chair, and settled down into a comfortable slump as Ino snarled at the Akimichi's inelegance and arranged the yellow flowers in a vase. 

Chouji was glad of the chance to talk, though apparently Kiba had been to see him as he'd left the hospital himself. Shikamaru was glad his friend hadn't been too alone in while he'd been out of it himself, though that worry had been unfounded to begin with; his family had hardly left his side.

Kiba's visit, on the other hand, had been cursory at best, and more like rude. He'd apparently come to complain that Naruto had left his gift for Chouji with the Inuzuka along with Zaku (who'd collapsed into a gibbering terrified heap, twitching and muttering 'sand!'). Akamaru had eaten the mess of flour and noodles, and sicked it up onto Zaku. Kiba had seen this as a slight towards his dog, and threatened to feed Naruto broccoli and snails. Shikamaru sighed.

This led to Shikamaru explaining Naruto's culinary experiment to the others, which he did with more than a little scorn. Chouji was vaguely shocked by this ignorant attempt at cooking, and decided he ought to teach Naruto the Akimichi ways (How could you make a meal with no real meat in? Rehydrated crap didn't count!); Ino muttered about carbohydrate overdose and then cleared her throat meaningfully. The males looked up at her, and she had the vague impression she was intruding. But that was silly, they could always witter about Naruto's idiocy later. She shifted to speech-making mode.

"Well. I, Yamanaka Ino, have an announcement to make" Stated she with gravity "I am henceforth going to be less frivolous! I've thought long and hard, and come to a decision. I will no longer stop training if I get my arm-guards grubby, beautiful though my outfits are; I will no longer spend time with all the drop-out clique kiddies shopping, whether or not the travelling market's in town; and I will no longer pack my make-up when we go on missions. This is the new and reformed Ino, and I'm giving Team Ten a hundred and ten per cent!" She made a peace sign, enthusiasm radiating from every pore.

Chouji applauded. Shikamaru nodded, thinking that though a new and more dedicated Ino would want him to put more effort in, it might be a good idea (or a useful distraction) to do that anyway. A certain possessed Sand ninja featured prominently in his reasoning for this logic.

"And I think we should make a team decision on it."

"You don't want us to have a motto, do you?" Chouji asked with trepidation. He felt determination should only go so far, and Shikamaru understood how this led to the non sequitur perfectly. They knew each other far too well, and an image of an Ino-ruled Team Ten with perfectly groomed matching Genin was in both their minds.

(Shikamaru hardly noticed as he was distracted from his worries.)

"Idiot, we're not going to be a lame team. We'll be the stars of Konoha's genin!" A starry fantasy lit her eyes for a minute, before reality returned.

"No. What I really mean, it's that." She trailed off briefly, before finding her point and rearranging herself, setting facts in line. The boys sensed seriousness, and they became attentive.

"I've always tried hard at things," She spoke levelly, stating the facts, "Gone into them with enthusiasm and the aim to be the best. Number One Most Beautiful Kunoichi! - Adopter of strays and expert in flowers, searcher for beauty in unlikely places. I don't want to be a failure, and so ... I don't want our team to fail. The idea that we'll drop behind all the others and be pathetic, allowed to waste our potential by Asuma-sensei until we're doomed to C-rank missions for our whole lives - that's not something I'm willing to let happen!

"Can you imagine that, Shikamaru? At the age of late-forty, you'll have a beer belly and spend your days trudging along on escort missions! Chouji, you'll be living the day in wait of a restaurant meal, not wanting to give up on the ninja profession but too late and too weary to change things around and show your dad you can improve on his jutsu! I'm not telling us to aim for ANBU careers or to beat the best, but ... come on, folks, are we going just keep doing the minimum and spend the rest of our lives in steady decline?"

Chouji and Shikamaru both really listened to her speech, and not just in fear of her retribution. Shikamaru nodded, slowly. He wasn't utterly convinced, but Ino's tendency towards passion – while unfortunate if you invoked her rage - could give her words a driving force, and they painted a strong picture. It rang true, and Team Ten for a few moments sat thoughtfully in the hospital room, feeling unified in the light of this aim.

* * *

Chouji nodded, Shikamaru was giving her his full attention. Ino didn't think she'd seen him so attentive to any one thing before, except when Chouji had got injured by Kankuro: then he'd been alert and reactive, not steadily interested like he was now. It was strange to have an effect on someone who had always been, if not superior, indifferent or uninterested in her. 

"So. I think that when Chouji gets let out of here, we should all go out for a meal as a team to celebrate this decision, and make decisions on how we'll do this." She paused, then reluctantly added: "And we should bring Asuma-sensei."

"The barbecue place?" Food-lust lit Chouji's eyes. Ino almost felt sorry for her hungry friend, having to live on hospital food, before she remembered how many crisp packets Shikamaru had cleared off his table. In light of their reform, she suppressed a comment on weight and just nodded.

Shikamaru decided to voice his agreement with this decision.

"So that's next Monday, then."

"Someone's gotta tell Asuma-sensei." Chouji pointed out

"Troublesome..."

"He should be in town, this time of day. Playing Go, so _you_ can let him know, Shikamaru." She poked him, and he gave her a resigned look. _New and determined Ino retained her skill at delegation, ha!_

"Well you can't blame Chouji for not being a candidate for the task, and I've got an actual job." (_And she could even produce valid reasoning!_ Ino was pleased with herself...)

"Whatever."

"And you can go there _now_, before you even think about slipping back out to that field of yours." She turned to Chouji, a sudden and seemingly innocent smile on her face "Byyyye, Chouji; Get better soon!"

And so Team Ten parted, leaving each to consider their places in it.

* * *

In case anyone wants the details of Finals line-up that have been revealed so far in a more readable form, it is this. 

Lee vs (Sand Genin)

Naruto vs Neji

Temari vs (Sand Genin)

Shino vs Dosu; winner fights Sasuke.

You'll have to wait till later to see which of the male Suna-nin fights who.


	16. Sitting Still

Asuma was predictable, as always. Shikamaru found him with no trouble, and the two quickly engrossed themselves in the intricacies of strategy. It was after noon and the consecutive losses had driven any competitive spirit out of the older gamer when the Genin passed on his message. Asuma gave him a mysterious look, as if he comprehended the underlying meanings of the dinner date perfectly, and it was smiling beatifically that he left.

Shikamaru needed to think about this. The advancement of the Team Ten dynamic to this progressive mood was an unexpected occurrence, but one he should really have foreseen from Ino's reaction to Chouji's injury. It was interesting, to say the least, but he hadn't analysed his role in the new formation. Sure, the overhanging threat of Gaara made him feel less less antipathy towards the idea of training, but did he want to actually try? He currently only had one jutsu at his command, and while positive progress at the ninja arts was something he probably could do, he didn't want to. Trying actively to learn was something he hadn't done since he was little (even though he remembered experimenting with tree-climbing, and the rewarding sense of learning something new, and maybe because of that day).

No. He was quick to give up, and training to improve himself was the kind of thing people like Naruto did constantly, while he and Chouji sweated a little and desisted from their practice with little consistency or determination. He couldn't really associate the ideas of _himself_ and _training_ together. It was foreign.

Well, if the other two didn't back out, it wouldn't be that bad to give whatever they were doing a go. That would give the impression he was stretching himself, and mean in actual fact he was following the herd passively. Much easier.

* * *

It was while thinking thoughts of training that he headed back through the town centre, unhurried to return home. Passing Ichiraku ramen, he wondered vaguely what Naruto was doing. 

As if thoughts had summoned him, a gleeful orange blob ran towards him, eyes fixed on the stand.

"Raaaaaaaamen!!"

The Shadow-nin raised a hand, smiling almost involuntarily at his friend's antics.

"Gwahaha! Oh, Shikamaru! Ne, wanna come eat ramen with us?"

He was declining politely when it occurred to him Naruto had said 'us', and he looked around. A towering man with a mane of white hair and a hitai-ate with decorative horns moved towards him, eyes watching Shikamaru with a calm but perceptive air.

"Nara Shikamaru, is it?"

The man leaned forwards, examining his face. Shikamaru raised one hand, tempted to try and cover the whisker-marks along his cheeks. He suppressed the impulse, the old attitude of sulky indifference returning to him.

"No." Flat-voiced, he turned away, wanting distance between this guy, who was obviously Naruto's teacher – one of the Sannin, he had taught the Yondaime. Shikamaru felt himself hunching his shoulders, body language defensive with the instinct of one under predation.

"But, Shikamaru?" Naruto bounced over to his side, surprised.

The member of the Sannin intercepted him as he began to move away, long practice of the ninja arts giving the man's movements an effortless skill that Shikamaru doubted he would ever achieve.

"Nice to meet you," the hermit smiled, quirking lips that were obviously better used for leers and smirks. "I'd be very interested to hear more about this incident between you and Sabaku no Gaara. This old hermit must be getting out of date, not to understand all this fancy talk about blood and red light –just what, kid, are you teaching yourself to do?" He stabbed a finger at Shikamaru, where the boy was certain the curled symbol at the top of the seal – the only sign the genin understood, it was where his chakra connected with the seal system – would have been if the seal was visible.

The man's light tone didn't fool Shikamaru for an instant. Fuck! How the hell could he get away from the guy without letting anything be said to Naruto?

"Sorry, I'm late for something." Worth a try...

"Oh, I wouldn't want to _detain_ you, then." His intimidating gaze vanished into faint sarcasm. "The name's Jiraiya the toad hermit, by the way; Numero Uno of the Legendary Three Ninja! Remember me, I'm _sure_ I'll see you around.."

Grinning unnervingly he moved in a blink of the eye to the ramen stand. As he leaned against it, his keen eyes followed Shikamaru unblinkingly.

Naruto felt the tension, and wondered.

* * *

Shikamaru was scared. That guy knew who –_ what_, rather – he was. Would walking away mean he'd tell Naruto? Even if it would, talking about the matter now would mean Naruto would find out, he was sure. And the _sennin_ had had an opportunity to tell Naruto before, and apparently hadn't. He'd been allowed out of the conversation for now, so he'd take that way out. He could make a plan, and be better prepared to talk to this Jiraiya later. 

Walking home, he couldn't help but think of all the things he'd been trying not to consider. _Just what, kid, are you teaching yourself to do?_ That was the problem. Standing looking at Gaara in that hospital room, he had been able to feel instinctively how to use the fox's uncontrolled, elemental chakra. Staying still and not attacking while suffused with the demon's energy had been difficult because he could see, could sense, possible ways to exploit this state.

The demonic chakra could not be moulded, but Shikamaru was sure it could be directed. Like the clouds following paths made by the wind, the mind would nudge into position that feral energy. The shadow bind moved shadows by mixing and taming chakra, but making blood-red chakra of the fox go where he sent it would be a more complex art to master. Watching the clouds bought ideas to him, and he was tempted to try and access the fox's power again, feeling interested, eager to experiment and learn in a way he hadn't been interested in since the tree-climbing episode.

He couldn't do that, though. He had wanted to attack Gaara, maybe kill him. He didn't want to think like that and didn't want to expose himself to the influence of the fox. He could have sworn his irises were redder than they had been before, and the hidden village would not be happy with a fox-influenced savage-looking demon vessel. They barely tolerated a lazy one.

No, he wouldn't be doing any training unless it was under Ino's lead. That Jiraiya was cunning, and the fox was trouble even if there weren't people looking for signs of its influence. The fox was dangerous, troublesome, and generally not something he should be messing around with.

He mechanically got himself lunch, since he could see the dishes left on the side by his mother. Think about something else... He thought about his family. Though he'd thought he'd adjusted to the loss of routine after the exams, it was still strange to be the only one at home. He sat at the long table in their old room, and enjoyed the cool still dark of the shaded side of their house, the calmness and familiarity of the place.

Having eaten, he didn't have any inclination to do anything else, or even to leave the room. He lay on his back on the cold rough-hewn tiles, eyes shut to mere slits so he could barely make out contrast. His attempts to distract himself just made him mope about other matters, so he tried to plan. He thought about the bigger picture, such as it was.

Gaara knew of his demon-host status and that he had used the Kyuubi's chakra, and Jiraiya guessed the same. Gaara would probably assume he knew more than he actually did about the use of said chakra (and he was _not_ going to prove him right), while Jiraiya was presumably looking to find that out. Both were dangerous, and although Gaara represented a more immediate threat, Jiraiya, a Sannin, had the political power to create a furore if he wanted to. Whether the Toad Hermit did intend to do so was unknown, but he could neither approach Naruto alone to investigate the man or speak to Jiraiya without Naruto there to discuss the Kyuubi issue. He could maybe ask his dad if he knew the man.

His mother came home, and he awoke from the pensive trance state. Got himself up, knowing she'd be worried about him while he was in such a reclusive mood. She worried less if he took his moods outside into the warm sun and peace of the field, fooled by the brighter look the sunlight painted over sulking. But he didn't want to go outside.

He went to his room, sat on his bed absently. He couldn't really do anything about either Jiraiya or Naruto. It was frustrating to know that there were such threats to his (-to his what, reputation?), and he was helpless if they chose to disclose his secret.

He remained on his back on his bed in a quasi-meditative state, mind travelling in circles.

Really, he thought, it'd be easiest just to tell people about the Kyuubi thing. It wasn't as if he cared what they thought, and they would probably (-_hopefully_-) not kick him out of the village just for the one incidence of demon-like behaviour. It wasn't like he'd hurt anyone. All he'd done with the fox's chakra was to free himself and scare Gaara.

He felt more tempted to tell his mother about the altercation with Gaara than his dad, and he considered telling her while dad was out at work.

Factually, his dad would be better informed on possible consequences of the shadow bind screw-up. He'd know about the possible effects of the intrusion of foreign chakra into his system (that phrase sounded like a chapter in a book, but Shikamaru didn't want to remember that nightmarish stand-off). From experience, he'd be able to understand how Shikamaru had taunted the psychologically damaged Suna-nin, how he'd chosen the right verbal attack to make on the red-head demon-host, how unnerved Shikamaru was at the way Gaara had lost his sanity to fury and a sand-demon. Gaara's eyes, blue-green and shocked, stuck in his memory.

But his dad had lost a leg to the Kyuubi's attack, and the last thing he wanted was to discuss the creature with him. Neither of his parents had even come near to mentioning that matter with him, but his dad had avoided the matter actively when Shikamaru was younger (and not avoiding it himself.) Besides, he was generally slower to criticise the village's opinions. He'd probably tell Shikamaru to explain the whole Gaara business to the Hokage, and await his judgement on it. Add that to the fact he obviously knew about what Gaara was, and that made Shikamaru shy away from talking to him about the whole thing, whatever his father's superior understanding of the ninja psyche.

Now, though, his dad was back home. Maybe he'd speak to his mum tomorrow.

* * *

He ate dinner with his family mechanically, and his father was even more reserved than he normally was. His mother was vaguely annoyed about something, serving food curtly and occasionally throwing dirty looks at her husband. Neither of them commented on his own behaviour, though he'd hardly spoken a word to them all day. The meal seemed to last too long. 

Shikamaru returned to his room, mental state grim. His ponytail held his hair back too tightly for comfort, so he let it down. He ran his hands through it, paced. He couldn't resist the urge to look at his reflection out of the corner of his eye, and what he saw seemed eerie. The low evening light shone through his window onto one side of his face, and spiky shadows were thrown over his eyes and cheeks from the locks of hair that were sticking out to the sides, still stiff from their confinement. Only a few bits of hair fell straight forwards, but two that did ran parallel, one on each side of the iris that was glowing in the sun. It was as red as blood in the sunset light.

* * *

Here's something that far too many Naruto fics get wrong. I'm not claiming to speak Japanese fluently or even at all, but I'm pretty sure of this. 

_**Sen**_**nin** means Hermit. I _think_ Jiraiya claims the title Gama-Sennin for himself, which means Toad Hermit.

_**San**_**nin** means Three Ninja. Think of Sandaime, the Third Hokage. (Densetsu no Sannin is their real title, which means Legendary Three Ninja. Those three are Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya.)


	17. It's Beginning to Get to Me

The next day dawned bright with a clear sky. The cloud deficiency made Shikamaru's already grim mood even less pleasant, and the heat in his room was stifling. It was reluctantly that he attended to the deer herd, feeling himself sweating in the oppressive heat. He was tempted to wear his nice, cool mesh vest instead of his standard moss-green or black t-shirts, but remembering the overhanging tension over the Kyuubi he decided it would be stupid to risk the exposure of the seal. The self-imposed restriction of clothing only added to his aggravation at the problems the demon-fox caused.

He didn't dawdle in the heat, but when he returned with his duties completed he ate breakfast leisurely. He remembered the agreement Team Ten had made. It was a week since the team's elimination from the Chuunin exam, and a week since he'd done any notable physical exercise. He felt like going for a run or something just to shake off the sluggishness the heat caused. He felt confined by the house, and the heat, but that was combated by a lingering opposition to exercise just on principle and his attempts to cling to his slacker habits.

He was sitting aimlessly at the table when his mum came down.

"Dear, you're going to help me clear out the room for Rumiko today, aren't you?"

He'd forgotten his sister was coming home. Maybe she was the person to talk to about his myriad issues.

"I said _aren't you_, Shikamaru?"

He nodded.

* * *

Moving the folders and packets of mission logs his dad had stored in Rumiko's old room was a chore of monumental proportions, but Shikamaru was less reluctant than he would normally have been. His mother complained cheerfully about her husband's habits - "After twelve years he could really have made the investment into a filing system, but no!" - and various villagers, and the combination of concentration on the work at hand and Yoshino's conversation distracted Shikamaru from his dejection. 

"She's always been somewhat creepy," she said of a shopkeeper "and I swear someone in her family must have married a Hyuuga and their kids got the snobbery and the whole pale-eyed look down, but missed out on the ninja skills. Inheritance is a scary thing. I mean, look at you, sitting at a table staring blankly at the wall. You Nara wouldn't notice the world until it slapped you round the face... Whoever your mothers are, any boy of the clan Nara seems to keep the lethargy. Your father thinks you all have the same dedication to a common good, but he's weird like that. Maybe you're all delusional as a family trait as well..."

Shikamaru shrugged, smiling slightly. His mum was his mum, and wouldn't need to be told whether he was amused or not. He wanted to tell her how frustrated he felt, but he couldn't think of how.

"You know, you suck at holding conversations. You're _all too lazy!_" She punctuated the remark by whacking him with a folder, and he ducked out of the door, carrying a box of various files.

He wanted to introduce a new conversation, discuss the issue at the forefront of his mind. But his resolve wavered as he reached the dining room and deposited the box, and by the time he'd got back it seemed to have been a stupid idea in the first place.

His amiable silence reverted into its previous taciturn brooding, and after a lunchtime in which neither spoke, they finished removing the junk that had been stored in the room. His mother kicked him out 'to stare at the sky until you stop moping', so he left the now oppressive-seeming house.

Outside, he felt no urge to rest on his back. Maybe it was the problems cluttering his normally calm and relaxed mind, maybe it was his lack of activity over the last week, or some effect of having his chakra system overrun by not one but two different forces, or some darker longing to call back that flame-like chakra, but he felt restless enough to want to exercise somehow.

Guided by a random impulse, he headed to the forest.

This was where, years ago, his sister had seen the Kyuubi's seal. He'd rarely revisited it since then, but after a half-hour jumping through the trees, he found the tree he'd learnt to walk up, vines still not fully regrown from where he'd ripped a path by repeated falls. Moss had grown over the empty space, darkened in the shade of the foliage until it resembled a bloodstain. He descended to the ground, and looked up it.

And began walking up, at first awkward after a year without using this skill.

* * *

Shikamaru slept in on the next day, tired after spending most of the last afternoon actively. He was woken early by bird-calls, but forced himself to go back to sleep. Waking up again, he opened his eyes, rolling over to look out of the window. Faint tracers of cloud strata were scudding across the sky, blown east by the wind. 

The window was not ideal to watch clouds through, since the frame intruded on his line of vision and the angle of it meant reflections blurred the view. He watched them out of it anyway, lethargic although it was less hot than yesterday.

The wind guides the wisps of cloud, the currents of air and pressure and heat shape them. Years of observance let him predict where and how fast the clouds would flow, and he stopped the passive unfocussed looking and without realising it starts analysing the patterns.

* * *

The rest of the day passed slowly, dull aimlessness and preoccupation making it almost torturous. He didn't want to visit his cloud-watching spot, knowing he wouldn't relax there. 

His mother had gone to work at a nursery she helped out at for the day, so he ended up restlessly wandering between rooms. The idea was stronger than ever in his mind that he'd tell her he knew about the Kyuubi. He planned sentences, speeches.

* * *

His father bought home profiles and copies of the match line-ups for the Chuunin exam final, said something vague and unusually petty about Rumiko's return depriving him of his valued work-space, and dumped them on the living-room table. Shikamaru took a seat in his dad's preferred leather armchair and leaned forward, unsurprised that this formed a perfect position in which to skim-read things that lay there on the table. His father liked doing work in the evening with a drink from a comfy chair... Putting such musings aside, he investigated the files in hopes of finding Gaara's, but there was a seal-lock on the folders that he didn't know how to get past. He reluctantly abandoned his snooping when his mother called him for dinner, thinking about the irony of seals guarding information on the sealed. 

His father told them without being prompted about what those files were and his responsibilities to do with them – report on the likelihood of various probable outcomes, and consider their political repercussions. Shikaku's analytical mind was valued highly by the Sandaime, and though he'd refused to take a position on the council, this was another way of drawing political advice from him, and one he was happy to do.

"Soooo" Yoshino slyly said, when he refused to disclose details on the genin themselves, " If you tell me who you reckon'll win, and I bet on them, we could potentially make enough money to rebuild the rotten bits of the deer fence."

Shikaku gave her a lot that clearly said: moral principles.

Yoshino waved one hand dismissively, "No, seriously, who's going to win the thing?"

"I'd like to say Hyuuga Neji, but Sabaku no Gaara is the most likely victor. But even though he shouldn't even be entered, all we can do is watch and hope he doesn't kill too many of our strongest Genin"

His tone of disapproval was coloured by deep disgust, and it scared Shikamaru. Shikamaru's hands clenched into fists. He forced himself to speak.

"Why not? He's a genin."

"He's a _murderer_."

Shikamaru couldn't stand it. Part of him was thinking: he's talking about how he behaved, that's what you thought about him and called him. The other part, though, could only hear Gaara's amazed voice: _you're the same as me_.

He stood up, feeling strangely calm, (not noticing as he knocked his chair and it fell back with a clunk, knocking a displaced stack of folders across the floor.)

"He's like me."

His dad looked up sharply, face turning white and shocked. He blinked, eyes losing their hooded appearance. He slowly lowered his chopsticks to the table, moved to stand up.

Shikamaru was suddenly scared of what he'd say in reply. He spoke from the rage that had been building up recently, unable to endure the silence any longer.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice the evidence staring me in the face?!" One hand raised with fingers clawed by tension, scratching across the whiskers on his cheek "I'm a Nara, I'm not fucking stupid! You think I'd miss something like that?!"

He had bared his teeth, glared, narrowed eyes in instinctive fury. Then he noticed his mum, looking at him with tears on her face.

He turned and ran out of the room, away. Out of the house.

* * *

Next chapter, Yoshino tells us the story of Shikamaru's birth. THERE WILL BE RATHER A LOT OF NAUGHTY LANGUAGE. Please don't be too offended by it. 


	18. It Had Been A Bad Day

Attention, this chapter contains rather a lot of swearing.

* * *

Many people who have made a fury-driven decision to run away from home will end up embarrassed and reconsidering; Shikamaru was little different. Sitting in the crook of the tree where his sister had looked down at him in horror on seeing the seal, he spent an uncomfortable night looking at the stars. It had been colder and windier than yesterday all day, and by night this was turning into a chill that reached deep. The moon was large in the sky, though, and the thin clouds left a good view of its bright surface. The fox-host was lying looking up at it, wondering whether his being stubborn like this was very troublesome for his parents. They would be worried, but in some ways he wanted them to be. It felt like hours had passed, and he'd watched the pinks and oranges accompany the sun as it fell further, and watched the slow incremental increase of darkness. He'd lost some of the tension he'd felt earlier, but there was a lot weighing on his mind. He pictured Chouji in hospital, and imagined talking to him about this all. 

"It's such a hassle." He spoke with his face tilted back to the sky "I don't know whether I want to be a good son. I don't want my mum to worry, but if I stay here, they'll just... be talking about me."

(_insecurity_)

"If I go back, mum'll be concerned. I don't want that, she'll pity me, she'll want to talk about Gaara.

"I kinda hate Gaara now. It's all his fault, why'd he have to bring his demon-host bastard self here. If he didn't I could stay all normal and happy and watch the clouds and make an effort with Ino's resolution. I would have really done that, but now I have the feeling the effort I'll be putting in will all be to keep this secret about the Kyuubi as secret as it is now. Which isn't all that secret. I want to get the stupid non-secret out in the open, it'd make this everyone else's thing to worry about and wonder about. But to do that I'll have to speak about it.

"It's _difficult_ to put something like that into words. At least it is when you're looking at someone and wondering how their face is going to change as you say it. It's giving myself a label, a label that they won't forget ever. It's not like it changes who I am from who they know me as, but _they don't know that!_ How could I express that: 'don't worry, I'm not a demon' – I'd sound really idiotic. Ugh.."

He'd been talking louder than he'd meant to. How embarrassing would it be if someone found that out because they'd been listening to him talking about how he wouldn't tell them. Besides, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, they say. He squashed himself tighter into the branch, hiding his head in shrugged shoulders. His ears were cold, so he pulled his hair tie out, shaking his head to reorder his hair.

Time elapsed, slowly. It turned the darkness to real night, the woods becoming invisible around him. He didn't want to get out of his tree, because he couldn't see anything. He felt just a little scared of falling, and curled up, locking his arms around the branches. Something tickled his bare arms, and he found himself hunching defensively. He didn't feel sleepy, the cold air keeping him aware.

He wondered sardonically if he should talk to the fox sealed into him. Address a complaint.

"Dear Kyuubi. Please leave, or otherwise stop causing me stress. BTW, are there any side-effects of you doing whatever you did when I was fighting Gaara? I'm probably being paraoid, but my eyes very red when I looked in the mirror yesterday. And not just from lack of sleep. Regards, the person whose body you're inhabiting without permission. PS. Are you somehow messing with my mind? I'm a Nara, I _can't_ naturally be this obsessive."

He sighed. Maybe not. Too much sarcasm was bad for you.

The night seemed long.

* * *

Eventually, he must have dropped off to sleep, because he woke up, one arm numb after having spent the night jammed between two branches. It was around an hour before dawn, and the oppressive blackness had receded. He made his way to his cloud-watching spot, stiff from the uncomfortable sleeping position but feeling strangely elated at the prospect of watching the sun rise. The sky looked free of clouds, and just starting to grow lighter. 

When he reached the edge of the forest and descended to the ground, though, he saw his mother there, huddled in a blanket. She looked up in his direction, and even in the meagre lighting he could tell she hadn't slept. Had she been crying?

Rebellious instincts vanished, and he moved quickly towards her. The dew on the grass made him realise he had no shoes on, and that she must have been cold and uncomfortable. _Why wait out here for me, you didn't need to do something stupid like that!_

He moved and sat down besides her, head turned towards her. She brushed one hand through the dew and wiped her face, which may or may not have had tear-tracks running down it. Shikamaru started to say 'you'll catch a cold', but that would have been avoiding the issue.

"I guess I owe you an apology." She was looking at the lighter sky. "I thought that probably you'd guessed it, before. It was just too hard to raise the subject."

"When Rumiko saw the seal I - guessed what..."

"I'm sorry" She murmured, barely audible. _It must have been awful_, she thought, _to have no option but to come to a conclusion like that about yourself._

"I used as an excuse... a law that Sandaime made. That it was illegal for anyone to discuss the truth of what happened then, to Yondaime and the Kyuubi."

(She forced herself to say the names, and if it was difficult to do so her son didn't have to know that.)

"But he was a fool to do that in the first place. I always knew it was idiotic to hope you'd never learn about it; as you said, you've a Nara. Besides, you're related to me, and my family's not credulous either. It was weak-minded of me to stay quiet about it, fitting in with the bullshit Konoha ethos. I shouldn't have done that, I've sat out here all night and now I can say I know that for certain."

Shikamaru was quiet. He'd thought his parents were wrong to not mention it, but he wouldn't have ever imagined they'd share his views so strongly. There was no victory in it. He was looking down now, instead of at the sky. He felt his mother's gaze on him and looked up at her, knowing she could see even less than him in the light. He could see the lines around her eyes, although it wasn't light enough for shadows to be cast.

"It's too late for me to have any right or reason to say what I should have said a long time ago. But since I doubt I'd ever tell you later if I don't now... " She trailed off, looking down.

Shikamaru was torn between morbid fascination and not wanting to know. She spoke again, with determination.

"I'll tell you about the day you were born." - she took a deep breath; her voice was stable - "I'd been trying to finish packing up while a couple of genin kids were struggling to get me out of the house so I could be evacuated. One of the kiddies was holding Rumiko, the others grabbed my bags for me and they were all glad to be intimidated by me, glad to be doing the kind of things you brats do on your D-class missions. Familiarity, I guess.

"They were all so fucking terrified of the utter chaos going on elsewhere, and you could read it in their actions. I got them to all focus on me at least. Calmed 'em down just by doing something a little familiar, played the clan matriarch bitch to the hilt. So anyway, these nervous kids were tryin' to do their job and not really succeeding, so when I told them to get me to the hospital they were fucking clueless. I started yelling and eventually the facts permeated their little brains. I had to tell them to put all my shit down and it ended up us all practically crawling around the bits of the town that were stable. Ludicrous in retrospect. There were all these barriers and the wreckage of the building – like, earthquake damage or shit – and so I most all I remember of that journey is the kids pulling me along and saying _keep moving keep moving you'll be fine_. And I was there just attempting to stay upright through contractions. Hoping nothing fucking fell on me 'cause everything was shaking apart. Not looking up. Huh, and stress levels induce labour. That works out great.

"So the kids got me to the hospital, and into the wards and all. There were a ton of ninjas everywhere, hurt and dying. Me being there was as surreal as the rest of it, and I was hardly thinking straight; here was me considering that new life among death was symbolic and shit. Heh. So that one backfired on us, I guess"

She stopped speaking, and Shikamaru imagined she had reached the end of the part of the story she was comfortable retelling. The momentum of her voice had faltered, and now she was thinking about the real pain in this so-called surreal story. Her son wasn't looking forward to hearing the story of his birth, much less that of his subsequent fate, but he acknowledge that somehow he _had _to hear it now she'd said this much. Letting his mother stay half-way through the process of reliving her memories would be unfair to her – she seemed more hurt by this night as he was, and she was owed this catharsis. But before he could think of something to stay along those terms, she started speaking again, this time without the natural (and profane) air to her rhetoric.

"When you were born, I wanted to leave." her voice was too measured and too calm. "There had been two nurses there, and they'd been calm and professional, doing their jobs like nothing else was happening. But one of them had skipped out at some point and there'd obviously been some kind of behind-the-scenes communication, and they became all nervous and awkward. I don't remember what I thought was going on, but I knew I wanted out of there.

"The other thing I remember about then was the other people in the room. The hospital was filled to way over capacity, and so they dumped some shinobi guys in there. One of them had been burnt up, the whole right side of his body was absolutely fucking grilled, and he was lying there, staring at the little baby-you with total fascination. Life in the face of death, that kinda thing. And while I was holding onto you and sitting up, making to leave, he leant all the way out of his bed, eyes still fixed on you an' having to scrape his ruined body across and in obvious pain, he reached out. I kinda nervously held you towards him and he just touched touched your head with his good hand, and it was this fucking surreal tableau. The guy just collapsed after that, lying back vacantly in his bed. And I believe he must have died, but I didn't know his name and never found out." She looked at the horizon, quieter voiced, "It's not significant, but that made some kinda impression on me. It's the clearest picture of that day for me, really. The rest's kinda confused by all my... emotion, really. That image of that guy is something I didn't have to consider, something I didn't ruin by wearing it out and... regretting it or whatever.

"Well, I've gotta say the rest of it now I've said that. You can make judgements on me if you want, and I won't say I haven't sometimes regretted not just making a run for it or telling that-. No, I'll tell the story first."

She took several deep breaths, then dived back into the memories.

* * *

SO ITS STORY TIME KIDDIES. 

This is a completely verbal flashback, since I've always wondered when people start talking and it turns into a nice prose description or a shiny animated story exactly how much of that would be recounted by the person in the present time-line talking.

This lets you get a bit of a view into Yoshino's psyche, I hope. I've tried to move the Nara ladies a little away from the bland bitchy bossy women they are canonically. Admittedly this is mostly because I don't know much about them in canon. Anyway; brief supplementary info on our Yoshino – the daughter of a family that emigrated from Wave Country, she was in her late teens when she married Shikaku and she had Rumiko a year after the marriage. She is decidedly working-class, and initially latched onto her husband because the council was trying to stop too many people settling in Konoha.

Isn't ff net being unusually shitty at the moment. Let's hope they sort themselves out, because I had to reformat this a lot before it became presentable.

On another note, I've decided this story needs an actually ending, rather than dragging on until I run out of ideas. The fic will **end** when the Chuunin/Attack on Konoha arc is over.

Please review! Does Yoshino's language sound all british-slang to you? In fact, does the fic in general? I'm English, and thus I type mum, living room, trousers, etc and insert 'u' where americans don't put them...


	19. And It Got No Better

"_Well, I've gotta say the rest of it now I've said that. You can make judgements on me if you want, and I won't say I haven't sometimes regretted not just making a run for it or telling that-. No, I'll tell the story first." _

_She took several deep breaths, then dived back into the memories._

* * *

"The Yondaime showed up. I saw him, and I was just – surprised, really. He'd been in the fight, and one hand had all the skin shaved off it on the back, and was covered in blood. He had a coat, cloak thing, with red stripes cutting down it, and they were all mixed with blood. But his face - you see pictures of that guy, and he's looking all serious and grim, and he just looked like that. Composed and important. Like some super-fucking-natural image of some kind of Messiah!" This was said with some kind of bitterness, but it wasn't anger as such. 

"And he stood in the door for a moment, then lifted his hand up to touch his face, kinda becoming awkward when he had to actually speak. Broke the illusion of self-confidence, just a bit. I s'pose how the hell can you ask something like-!... I remember he was raising his hand in some kind of nervous gesture, but it was all covered in blood. He stopped so he didn't get it on his face, then slowly moved – awkward-like - and sat on the end of the bed, leaning his mashed-up arm on his knee. He started talking, and I was listening, but I kept staring at the blood that was dripping off his hand onto the sheets of my bed. He was staring at me, all so fucking sincere and guilty and desperate. And I just couldn't look at him or – anything. 'Cause I knew I'd tell him he could take you and, do what -"

She sighed, and although she was composed there was an old pain in her eyes. When she resumed her account of the meeting her memories were coloured by emotion, and her voice changed in volume, thick and clumsy with her attempts to express herself clearly.

"And I, kinda, _hated_ him, and that was really why I started to hate the ninja profession, for saving people in such fucking painful ways. There were all these people in the hospital, and they were dying and if I told that poor stupidly earnest fucker the Hokage I wouldn't let him – _use_ – you; fucking _curse_ you; if I told him that - he'd just go back and fight and annihilate himself and not even blame me. Everyone'd die all the same. And he just honestly _didn't even care_ that he'd kill himself whatever happened. And so I thought all that and he asked me if I would let him execute his plan and there was this, _tone_, to his voice, and I looked at him and his eyes held so much _hope_ for everyone else, that everyone else would live past this day. He was – genuinely devoted to it all. To Konoha. And I looked at him and it just amazed me, 'cause he was a total fucking impossibility, someone that honestly good. So in that moment - I stopped hating him. That's the truth of it."

Yoshino stopped talking, almost embarrassed by the way putting her feelings into words made her sound. It was bright enough now that Shikamaru's view of her face was clear, though it was still almost monochrome in the pre-dawn light. She shuddered, as if shaking it all off.

"I've relived that all in memory, so often. I started hating him again, - I mean, he died, he killed himself with that fucking seal, and so I never actually spoke to him or sorted out what I thought. Don't get the wrong idea, it was nothing like a crush, not attraction in any sense of the word. More like I saw what everyone seemed to see in him that made him a Kage. I guess the conclusion I came to was that I admired – admire - him for being so much of a typical–... so much a good man.

"That just shows how strange the ninja society is, that someone can with all the morals and good intentions in the world do something like what he did. What he did to you."

She frowned, thinking she should stop avoiding saying it. It was hard to vocalise something that had remained a secret for so long, and she couldn't tell if avoiding the truth of what that decision had been would help or hinder her attempt to talk to her son. She didn't like beating around the bush, so she'd make a try.

"Ah well. I've got a ninja husband and a ninja son, and so that system's going to have to stay with me. The things I dislike are really more than the _ninja_ system. The system of this village and probably of more places is completely unable to distinguish fact from fantasy, and in your case it lets all those moronic bastards retain their grudges and fear of that fucking fox and allows them to transfer them over to you. They're all better educated in the ninja arts than me, so they have absolutely no fucking excuse to ignore what I've recited to them more than once about that seal on you!"

She visibly made herself calm down, and an idea occurred to her.

"Actually, you wouldn't know this seeing as you worked out what he did yourself. I'll tell you what the guy said to me about the damn thing.

"The Youma; demons, that is, are beings constructed of chakra. Locking them in a warded temple or something's all good, but that can be broken down in time. They can also change their form, shrink and slip past walls or wait 'til time makes gaps in them, or grow and break out of wherever. So to keep them locked up, you need to lock their chakra, and this is done by keeping their chakra in forced motion – apparently, I don't get it really. The thing's chakra's condensed into the seal, but to keep it there the seal's got to constantly expend an' recycle a small amount of chakra. It's like, perpetual motion. So to seal it you seal it into something with its own source of chakra and the ability to move chakra and who won't be harmed by the demon chakra – youki, is it called? - Well, basically that means you can only seal Youma into people, and people whose chakra systems can develop around and with the Youma's own system. So a baby.

"That's the logic for sealing a demon inside a person, as Yondaime said, and it's nothing to do with possession or that. Animals wouldn't work cause their chakra circulates along with their bloodstream, and so it's fixed and can't adapt. And the seal's good as long as you don't run out of chakra, and it doesn't somehow stop circulating. So people talk fucking crap, in other words. And there's no way you're anything other than Shikamaru."

Shikamaru was silent for a long moment, and he folded his arms around his knees, cold. But he was more content than he had been for a while; relieved that his mother could talk without pity, with nothing more than judgement in his favour. Confirmation of his beliefs. The rest of her story was scarcely examined, filed away to be looked at later. She had vindicated his hopes, that he was entirely separate from the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

He looked down. He couldn't see the seal under his jacket, and he wasn't using chakra anyway. But somewhere in the region of his stomach, black lines marked out and contained the prison for a demon. How strange it was that something that had caused so much destruction could be reduced to sporadically appearing arcane symbols. In another world, he could have lived never even known the seal was there, completely and utterly normal and accepted as such by all.

But maybe not. His battle with Gaara resurfaced; clearly the paralysis had stopped his chakra circulating, starved the seal of energy, and allowed the escape of the fox's chakra. But he was back to normal (so he told himself, and for the most part he believed it). Did it matter?

Thinking about whether it did - or perhaps it was the proximity of his mother – made him feel pitifully young. He wanted to tell her about it.

"Are you okay?" Yoshino looked over at him, somewhat tentatively.

"Mom?" He gently sought her attention, and she shifted to look at him, "When I was fighting Gaara... Something happened."

She crossed her legs, rearranged her blankets, then resting her head on top of her folded hands in a copy of her husband's thinking pose. "I'm not a shinobi, but I'll pretend I know what you're talking about anyway, OK?"

He hesitantly explained the confrontation, skipping over his conversation with Gaara. She listened with a vaguely horrified interest, looking straight at him. He almost told her that it was tempting to try and call on that power again, but he stopped short. That was not something she would be sympathetic towards; probably no-one would. It would not be sensible to mention it at all. He spoke, reverting back to his previous worry.

"It just - scares me that he said we were the same."

"You" she looked seriously at him "Were completely _right_ when you said you weren't. Actions define us better than situations do, as they say."

He nodded. He'd used the demon's chakra to stop Gaara, not to make light of the murderous fox and its lethal fire. He wouldn't do that.

"It's... kinda haunting to be told that."

A bird cried loudly; he laughed off the serious words.

"Well, you know what?" Yoshino said, who had never learnt the art of changing the subject "I feel cold. But I'll get over it. Let's go back inside, shall we, and if necessary we can continue this conversation over hot drinks. But you know better than to believe something like that, so put it out of mind."

He nodded. And they headed back inside, hearts warmed by the rapport this conversation had strengthened.

* * *

AN: I'm not sticking to either dubbed or Japanese terms for ninja stuff, since I read and watch such a mixture of versions (I was introduced to the show through the French dub, later found fansubs in both languages, then watched the English dub for about two episodes before giving up in disgust. I've got some of the official manga but downloaded new chapters' scanlated versions.). The result of that is that I can't keep translated names straight, so I'm just using a messy mixture. The only pattern to this is that the Japanese is a more official or technical version of things. Yoshino as a non-ninja is repeating what the Yondaime briefly explained to her, and he uses various terms as they would appear in some textbook of demon sealing techniques, so whereas the rest of the world when talking about the Kyuubi would say the generic term demon, our seal expert-y Hokage would say _youma_, which is specific to a certain kind of demon and not perjorative. In other words, imagine that _youki_ means demon chakra in the same way virus is a scientific word for germ; that is, you could make rules and definitions for 'youki' and make a little table to compare it with reiatsu, ki, chakra and all those other fancy fantasy words for types of energy. 

Okay, I think that's sufficiently explained. For this fic, it is henceforth thus. But if it'd help to put all the random Japanese words in a table somewhere ask and I'll do that.


	20. Redawn

Shikamaru went back sleep after a cup of tea, despite it being nearly morning, and tried not to dwell too much on the images of men wounded fighting the Kyuubi, or his mother handing his baby self to a man with hands covered in blood. Sleep came easily, and when he woke up he was optimistic. He wandered downstairs to find his dad had already left for the Hokage's Tower, and his mother was doing cleaning and stopped it to heat up noodle soup for breakfast-cum-lunch. They ate discussing Rumiko's impending arrival, and where best to eat out. Shikamaru decided to go and visit Chouji, enjoying the walk in the pleasant weather.

Chouji was looking out of the window, absently eating his way through a packet of bon-bons. He offered them to Shikamaru, who took a seat and refused the sweet.

"That Sound guy Zaku was asking about you."

"The guy Naruto rescued?" Shikamaru frowned. _This has the potential to be troublesome. Those guys are up to no good. _

Chouji nodded, grunting in assent.

"So what did he ask?"

"If your _kagemane_ was a bloodline jutsu, and about your fighting and stuff."

"You didn't tell him, did you?"

Chouji looked slightly embarrassed. Shikamaru looked at him with exasperation, but moved on.

"Whatever. It's not like I'm going to fight him any time soon."

"So has anything interesting happened outside the hospital?"

"You won't believe it, but I ran away from home" Shikamaru said self-deprecatingly.

"What?" Chouji looked at him wide-eyed.

Shikamaru settled down, planning to relate the incident to his friend without the reasons behind it. But from that reaction, he could tell Chouji had no suspicions about Shikamaru, unlike Naruto, who'd seen evidence there was something about the lazy genin he was unaware of. Or Ino, who was observant enough to pick up hints.

He realised he wanted to confide in Chouji.

* * *

The plump boy had always looked up to Shikamaru as a kind of saviour, never suspecting the other boy's avoidance of the popular children and their games was because he wasn't welcome there himself. Shikamaru's dismissive attitude towards others of their age gave Chouji a blind respect for him, and sometimes he thought he was a faker for letting Chouji believe that he really did feel superior to all their peers. Chouji would talk about his alternating envy and fear of their classmates and their childish cruelty, and Shikamaru would never tell his friend that he felt the same in many ways. And he felt superior to his friend simply because he could cover those feelings up with indifference and scorn, and take refuge in his effortless intelligence. 

When he adopted a rude, sarcastic manner, he would complain about Chouji's eating habits and comparative lack of intelligence, but the Akimichi would forgive him almost instantly, and never snap back. The Nara would feel guilty when his laziness led Chouji to make excuses for him or shoulder the bulk of the work in missions, and as he got older he began to feel like an unworthy friend for acting as if he was better than someone as generous and loyal as Chouji. But on some level, he still took a cynical pleasure in Chouji's unwavering loyalty and faith in him. And that made him reluctant to tell Chouji that he was hated and scorned himself. Chouji had always been the one person he wasn't below on a social scale that he ostensibly dismissed but really believed on some level. Telling Chouji about how the village disliked him because of the fox would break his illusion of superiority.

But he'd known for a long time it was only right to do so. Chouji was an old and steadfast friend, and one he didn't want to use or deceive. Honesty would stop him feeling so isolated, and that was a good thing. Isolation was letting him wonder more and more about the fox and Gaara and generally depressing him, and after talking to his mother he knew he wanted to just try and see himself as normal and prove Gaara wrong like that, by not descending into jealousy and self-isolation.

So he told Chouji the story of his past and how he'd learnt it, speaking quietly and as dispassionately as he could.

* * *

It was after lunchtime when he left the hospital, and he was tempted to go back and watch the clouds. Instead he went to see Asuma-sensei. 

Always predictable, the perpetually smoking jounin was in the game parlour. They passed much of the afternoon there, and this newly sociable Shikamaru raised the topic of Team Ten, and Ino's ambitions for it.

"I told you about the meeting four days from now... Ino" he paused, considered the right words "Wants us to progress."

"And do you want to progress?" Asuma asked lightly, making a move in the game.

Shikamaru shrugged. Shifted a piece, setting up another level of the trap on the board.

"You and Chouji have a say in the team as well, remember."

Of course I remember, but I don't want or need that role at the moment, thought the genin. He paused to consider moves.

"You only know one jutsu, correct?" Asuma made a move.

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, the _kagemane_. I s'pose it wouldn't hurt to learn some more..."

Asuma knew that that was as good a statement of commitment as he'd get from the Nara, so they concluded their game slowly and without further conversation. The jounin had visited Chouji a day ago, and he had to admit that he was genuinely impressed with how the outcome of the preliminaries had motivated them in different ways, particularly since they all still seemed stable. Now he just had to find out how much truth was in the rumours of an altercation between Shikamaru and Gaara. He wasn't in a hurry to investigate. Shikamaru would tell him when he was prepared to do so.

* * *

Shikamaru spent the remainder of the afternoon in the field, watching clouds. The day was breezy but warm, and the sun's gentle heat made the lazy genin restful. He decided to ask his dad about more jutsu, seeing it as a way to mend relations between them and defer to his parent's superior knowledge. It has to be done some time. He just hoped the older Nara wouldn't be angry at his shouting. 

But that could wait. He smiled up at the sky, persuading his eyes to unfocus and his mind to relax.

* * *

The family meal was a little tense, but Yoshino was making a real effort to distract the males of her family from their respective unresolved issues. Her personality dominated the table, serving food and drawing their attention to herself. Shikamaru had to wonder why she was trying so hard; it wasn't as if there was that much to worry about. Her voice seemed almost brittle, nervous. He remembered she had been awake when he'd woken up, and he found himself in the novel position of being concerned for his overbearing mother. 

His father seemed tired as well, not interacting in anything more than a cursory way. It bought back the memory of his mum speaking about the day he was born, and made Shikamaru realise that while he'd always seen himself as the victim of the events of that day, and the various people who disliked him because of it as idiotic, the Kyuubi was a painful subject for even reasonable people. Maybe it wouldn't be so easy to ask his dad to teach him.

* * *

After they'd eaten, Shikamaru sat on a sofa beside his mum, looking at his dad who sat in an armchair. It was his parents' habit to retreat there with drinks after dinner to discuss the day's events. He sat and listened to his dad's tale of foreign diplomats attempting poorly to spy on the Konoha genin, and shifted awkwardly. 

His mother excused herself to go and top up her cup of coffee, and Shikamaru decided now was as good a time as any to make his request. His dad seemed to sense his question, and looked at him over the raised mug of coffee.

"I was... thinking, dad, I ought to learn some different jutsu. Do you think you could give me any advice or anything?"

He hadn't realised until he'd spoken how rare it was for him to ask anyone for help. His father looked surprised, but not unhappy at the request.

"What brings this on?"

"I want to have a wider pool of resources?" He grinned in a lazy gesture that was almost a smirk as he paraphrased the line out of an academy manual.

His father snorted in amusement, and Shikamaru found himself explaining the Ino-Shika-Chou renewal. The older Nara nodded in faint approval.

"It makes sense. Your jounin-sensei should be the one teaching you, though." He stood, setting his coffee down carefully.

"Have a read through this, and I'll see about teaching you when you have a decent base understanding." The book he pulled off the shelf was obviously one of a kind, irregularly sized pages bound in leather giving it the look of some ancient diary. It was entitled '_The Principles of Shadow Manipulation_'.


	21. People Change, Do You?

Shikamaru didn't open the old book that night, being somewhat tired, but he spent as much of the next morning as his mother would allow lying with his feet up on the sofa reading it. The so-called Principle of Shadow Manipulation turned out to be an odd mixture of complex technical information and very practical notes which were sometimes just scribbled in the margins. Some of them read things like "grow hair long – range extend" and there was one long list of jutsu with nothing to explain them. Most were_ katon-_type, though, so the young genius could guess their use in shadow techniques.

Shikamaru spent the morning reading through the notes, correctly guessing the theories on kage-jutsu and their properties would take concentration to understand. Some of the notes gave him food for thought – in particular, one entire page that discussed the advantages of wearing a scarf. According to the book, clothing you wore enough to imprint with your personality cast a shadow that could be utilised in the same way your own shadow could be, even from a distance. If you learn a delicate air-shifting jutsu (he wondered if the person who created this watched clouds...) you could throw your item of clothing and move it as a precise vector for the bind. Even if you didn't learn the breeze manipulation, flicking it out towards them could give you at least a square metre more shadow with full bind properties. Shikamaru made a mental note to Chouji where he'd got his scarf from.

This day and the next passed quickly, with most of his attention on the book. The genin realised many of the notes required the user to learn new jutsu (he was on his way to a reform in training, but he wasn't going to go that far!), and later in the book most of them referred to shadow-movement skills he didn't yet have. So he began to learn the intricacies of the workings of the Shadow Bind. His interaction with the outside world was minimal, and his visits to Chouji mostly consisted of him talking about complex chakra-usage theories and his rotund friend nodding and eating.

* * *

Two days after Shikamaru's confrontation with his mother, Nara Rumiko arrived. She was later than expected, and complaining about hotel reservations and lying owners. He could hear her every word from the living-room, and he reluctantly hunted down a bookmark and rolled off the sofa to say hello. 

Rumiko was taller than Shikamaru remembered, but still lanky in build. Her hair was now in thousands of tiny dark braids with garishly brightly coloured beads on the ends. She wore a wife-beater vest and moss-green shorts, and had a hideous orange backpack that Naruto would have adored slung over one shoulder. As he moved into her line of sight she jumped forward to hug him with a wide grin on her face. Her braids felt strange against his skin.

The family moved back into the living room, and although he should have joined in the conversation, he couldn't help but pick his book back up. She produced random gifts, chattered about her travels, and generally disturbed the quiet of the house. He found himself wishing she'd stayed in the hotel, if she was going to just make so much noise. Guests were troublesome.

But he felt a little guilty for his resentment of her when she produced a present. From its carefully folded paper bag, he drew out a bronze deer pendant on a leather thong. It was a thoughtful gift, and he noticed it matched the necklace she was wearing.

So he made an effort to communicate, relating his fight with Naruto in detail, and the elimination of his genin team. Talking, he lost his impatience to get back to his book, and hardly noticed as his mother left to cook dinner. His sister grinned, flicking her braids so the beads clacked against each other, and as soon as Yoshino left the room she said with amusement:

"So basically you guys suck, then."

"Che, because you'd have done so much better."

"Naturally" She drew out the word, mocking.

He snorted in disbelief, and she swung her now only partly full backpack at his head. He rolled over his shoulder backwards and crouched to catch any further swings. She rolled her eyes and set the monstrosity down, keeping one arm tucked through the a shoulder-strap. Shikamaru gave the glaringly orange object a sceptical look and returned his sister's mockery.

"Rumiko" he drawled "Ino claims I have the fashion sense of a rock, but even I can tell that's an aberration!"

"It's so the tour groups don't lose me." She sniffed, defensive "I didn't want to carry a stick around, and it's impractical to wave stuff over your head in a rainforest."

Shikamaru smirked at his sister – though she had strange tastes, and admittedly wasn't the most fashion-conscious female in the world, she couldn't have been happy with being told to wear that.

She stuck her nose in the air, attempting hauteur. And brother-sister relations moved back into the familiar ground...

* * *

The pair of them had a serious talk the next day, having been sent to feed the deer together. 

"Shikamaru."

He looked up. She'd stopped, leaning on the fence, looking across at the field. He moved to beside her, resting his elbows on the fence and following her gaze.

"I need to tell mummy and dad something." She took a deep breath, face set.

"Well that's bizzare" Shikamaru ignored her seriousness. "I made my own confession just few days ago..."

She looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"You, what? Aren't you a bit young to..." She trailed off, and he couldn't guess what she had been saying. He decided to move on.

"So what do you want to tell them?" Shikamaru's voice was gentle.

"Shika-kun... I've got a girlfriend."

He blinked. About a minute passed with him staring in complete surprise and her looking out across the field, tension visible in how she was holding herself. Shikamaru, being twelve and familiar with the concept of _that kind_ of relationship through females' behaviour towards Sasuke; and with sex through Kiba's comments and Iruka's embarrassed lectures, was not at all sure what to make of this. Finally he spoke.

"Oh, okay."

And she burst out laughing, relief and shock making the moment hilarious.

It was some time later and they were heading back towards the house, tasks done, when the conversation started up again. She told Shikamaru about the daughter of a feudal lord, who had accompanied her father in the trip to Konoha and tried to run away, only to be caught up with by Rumiko. She'd spent a long evening discussing life with the noble-born tom-boy, who had returned to the tour after securing Rumiko's promise to help her stay in Konoha when they arrived. He still didn't really understand what made her a _girl_friend and not just a friend, but he knew just enough not to want to ask.

"So what was your confession?" She asked "You're not gay, are you?"

"GUH?!... No."

Silence for a long moment. He spoke awkwardly, still not easily able to bring this subject up.

"I told them I knew about the damn fox."

Silence for a moment

"Oh, okay then."

"I'll tell you the long version of events later, okay?"

"Sure."

* * *

Eating breakfast in amiable silence with her, he decided he was glad she'd come home after all.

* * *

So, this chapter heralds the return of Shikamaru's sister – she was in chapters 3 and 4. She'll be in this chapter and the next, and then she'll vanish again for the foreseeable future. The original reasoning behind her newly revealed sexuality is this: THERE ARE TOO MANY GAY GUYS IN FANFIC, SO: GAY GIRL, NOW. If you have a problem with this, don't worry, because there will be no actual lesbianism, just occasional conversations about it. 


	22. Older, Wiser

Rumiko spent the rest of the day rearranging her room and retrieving her belongings from the cellar, where they had spent the last three years or so boxed up. Shikamaru offered some help, but was quickly released back to his reading (or, more accurately, to his cloud-watching and laid-back conversations with Chouji). They didn't continue their confidential conversations that day, and at night he wondered if he wanted to tell her the whole story of the last two weeks.

His conclusion was yes, and so he felt disappointed when she left early the next morning to visit some friends of hers. It was a little embarrassing that someone you had been living without for years could effortlessly turn back into your main confidante in a day, and you could so easily begin to revert to a dependent-brat child figure when you'd been a grown-up ninja just a day ago. Shikamaru couldn't really concentrate on the complicated shadow-jutsu information, being busy trying not to consider what he'd say to her when she got back.

She didn't return for lunch, and he went to visit Chouji. They briefly discussed the possibility of girls having girlfriends, something Chouji was unexpectedly knowledgeable about. He noticed, talking to his friend, that Rumiko's return had distracted him from the book of Nara knowledge, and looking back further he realised he'd been fixating on one thing or another ever since the Preliminaries. It was nice to move on.

He and Chouji talked about what they were going to do when Chouji got out – Chouji thought the Team Ten reform was a good thing for them to do. He'd decided to learn some more of the family jutsu from his dad, and he and Shikamaru would practice straight taijutsu (with no chakra use whatsoever; this was a weak point for both boys; Shikamaru wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea as Chouji, but had no other suggestions), and Shikamaru would go buy a scarf and start working on strategies for extending his shadow without relying on the sun.

They were both slightly dubious about starting doing this much work, after so long avoiding doing it. But Chouji had realised that letting Ino decide what the team would do would lead back into the old system of her harassing them. He pointed out that that caused most of the team's arguments, and so the boys decided they'd come up with suggestions, hoping this would reduce Ino's bitchiness.

* * *

When he got back, his mother and Rumiko had had lunch. He felt just a little left out, even though there was a plate of food on the side saved for him. He took it outside and flicked rice out towards the sparrows that were pecking at the grass. He watched the birds, preoccupied by Team Ten's future. Training would be troublesome, but it was a better path to go down than one of paranoia and Gaara-like hatred for the world. 

The garden birds were chased off by a rook or raven, and the black-coated bird was itself chased off when Shikamaru put his plate down and made a hand seal, chasing it off with his shadow. It clattered and squawked as it flew away, but to the genin's vague disappointment, the other birds stayed away.

He heard footsteps from the house, and Rumiko sat on the grass beside him, dressed in some clothes she'd bought on her travels and deposited at home upon realising her wardrobe would be confined by what she could carry herself. Her skirt was very... flouncy.

"I didn't want to scare your birdies off, so I didn't come out till now..." She folded her arms behind her head and slid down on her back. He absently wondered if that was wrecking her skirt.

"Do you still watch the clouds?"

He nodded, mouth too full to reply without provoking a complaint about manners. She had her eyes half-closed in the bright sun, but was watching him from under her lashes. The braids furled out around her head, he hair compacted so much it was black. Some of the beads were caught against her neck and her by her slide down into the grass; didn't that hurt?

She looked weird like that, he thought. The shape of her head was more visible, and it made her face look kind-of fatter, but more angular. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it just made her look different from how he'd always thought she'd looked.

He shook his head. She's just grown up some, that's all.

"I never used understand why you watched the clouds, but they are kinda peaceful. Imn and I spent the whole journey from Grass lands to here watching the sky from the top of a cart, and it was nice."

Imn was the girlfriend. Shikamaru didn't mention that being on a moving vehicle defeated the point of cloud-watching. He finished his meal as Rumiko lay back, her eyes having shifted to the sky. He moved to put his plate inside, and when he returned, she was standing up.

"Shall we go walk somewhere? I heard some rumours about this psychopath named Gaara, in connection with _your_ name. Care to expand on that?"

"Rumours? From who?" He frowned at her, and she spun away from him to face the trail that led round the side of the fence. Her multi-layered skirt and the ribboned fabric tied over it swung in an arc around her, and her braids clattered.

She stretched as he moved to beside her, hands linked and arms straight above her head, back arched.

"From one Sabaku no Kankuro. Who was a moronic little shit who thought I was interested in him. Make-up wearing freak."

"He's the one that stabbed Chouji."

"Is he! That fucking _bastard,_ attacking poor little Akimichi-kun!!" In the course of being an aggressively defensive big-sister to Shikamaru, she had taken on the same role for Chouji, whose various siblings lived to far out of the way to play the part for themselves. However, she hadn't seen the tubby boy since she'd graduated from the academy and left home, and therefore still thought of him as rather more younger than he was. It made her adopt the same blindly cutting anger as her mother in indignant mode, and her vocabulary had obviously been expanded over the course of her journeys.

Shikamaru sighed, not wanting her to start ranting about the Suna-nin, whether or not he agreed with her descriptions. "It was in a fight."

"Hmph. If I see him again..." She shook her head, her beads emphasising the gesture.

They walked on. By the time her indignant muttering faded, they'd reached the edge of the fields, and started down a scenic trail through the wood.

"So, what exactly is going on with this Gaara?"

Shikamaru recounted the hospital-room episode, telling it fully. He added in the story of the ramen-cake and Inuzuka Kiba's room, trying to distract her a little from the nastier parts. Naturally, this didn't work. However goofy she was, Rumiko tended towards over-protectiveness and was therefore Not Happy at these events.

He moved on swiftly to the matter of Jiraiya, who he'd not mentioned to anyone else, and his unwillingness to have Naruto aware of the Kyuubi's fate.

"But the thing is, I really don't want to be spending my time keeping secrets from everyone. I told Chouji most everything, and he thinks I ought to let Naruto know rather than him finding out by accident, but -" he sighed "- it's difficult. Mum and dad know, like I said, but it's hard."

"I know what you mean. I still haven't said anything to my so-called boyfriend about Imn, and I know I have to sometime, but" She shrugged. The two walked on for a minute in mutual contemplation.

"That _really_ is not a valid comparison," Shikamaru said finally.

Rumiko thought for a minute, smirking for some reason her brother couldn't fathom.

"It's not all _that_ different," she said finally.

"I see no similarity" Shikamaru said dryly.

"We're both not telling people things. Jerk."

"Che" He kicked the ground.

Rumiko tried very hard not to make the comment about 'coming out' that was so very tempting. But she'd already said too many things unfit for young ears, and she didn't want to have to explain homosexuality to her little brother, who obviously didn't quite get it.

"Well, seriously, about that guy Naruto. His dad was the Fourth, right? ... I can see it could be touchy the two of you discussing the – that whole thing. But you have got to sort it out at some point, particularly if you're going to tell Ino about it."

"I haven't told Ino anything." He was glum now, "I guess I really should, and she probably wouldn't gossip about something like that, but it's – well, not a conversation I'm looking forward to."

Rumiko snickered. Ino had always been such a shallow little pink-wearing socialite...

"She's no worse than you, you know." Shikamaru felt a vague duty to defend Ino, who had proved herself able to be sensitive on several occasions, though he'd never admit that to anyone other than Chouji. Particularly not to Ino herself.

"Ex-_cuse _me?"

He smirked. And defending people by taunting others was amusing when they were those type of females that were so prominent in his life.

He ducked a fist, jumping several metres up a tree trunk and running.

Troublesome ones.

* * *

He curled up on one side of the sofa. Considerably less than one side, since his sister had her head and shoulders jammed into the crook between the back and side at the other end of it, and her legs flung over his knees. He pushed them off every minute or so, but they returned rapidly. Eventually he gave up and leant his elbows over her lower legs, so he didn't have to keep moving or putting his book to one side to prevent her kicking it. 

His father kept looking over with faint amusement, obviously familiar with this behaviour from the women that had kept him whipped when he was younger. He was not a particularly good disciplinarian, leaving that role to his wife.

_You would never guess,_ thought Shikamaru, frowning into instructions about the hijacking of shadow-based enemy-controlled clones, _that we have serious conversations. _

She noticed his exasperated sigh, and kicked his book up into his nose. Shikamaru swore, and his mother pretended not to be laughing as he told her son not to use that language about a lady.

_Family life... so troublesome._


	23. A Brief Idyll

Shikamaru didn't go to the hospital on the day Chouji was released, since his friend's father had been intending to fetch his son from there and needed to sign various things, and the Akimichi family who'd been visiting for the exams would all want to welcome him back. So he waited until after lunchtime, helping Rumiko sort out her room. When he deemed it safe, he showed up at Chouji's house.

He had just reached out to knock on the door when he saw Ino running towards him. She was carrying a basket, and dressed casually. He waited for her to get to him before knocking, smiling at her presence. _If Ino came to spend time with us now instead of waiting until the meal tonight, she must be serious about this. _

The two boys moved in very limited circles, only choosing to spend time with each other. Ino, on the other hand, had been a social butterfly since starting her education, welcome in most of the cliques of girlish Konoha. The glamorous academy drop-outs, most of the female Genin, and the younger academy pupils to whom she was a superior and wise mentor. She had had little time for the boys who had been her childhood friends in recent years.

But now she smiled back at Shikamaru, and Chouji opened the door, wiping his mouth and gesturing to ask if they wanted to come in while he chewed and swallowed something.

"Don't you want to spend some time outside?" Ino asked, and Shikamaru interpreted this as an understandable reluctance to be swamped by Akimichi and food, "You're all pasty after two weeks in hospital, the fresh air'll do you good if we go to Shikamaru's place."

Both boys had long ago learnt to concede to her, and she had a fair point. Chouji straightened his hat-thing on his head and grabbed his scarf off a stand, swinging it around his neck in a practised movement. He opened a cupboard that was concealed behind the door, removed a packet of crisps, and jammed it into his pocket before turning his head to the hall behind him and calling out to his parents.

"I'm off to Shikamaru's, see you later!"

* * *

Five minutes quiet walking later, Chouji reached into his pocket with the rustle of packaging. Ino held up one hand, and waved her finger in a negative.

"I bought you something _else_ to eat. A present!"

She handed the basket over.

"Since Naruto's attempt at cooking failed, someone needed to prove that not all blondes are dumb..."

Chouji uncovered white fondant sweets each with a little delicate curl of orange zest on top. They were a little smushed and jumbled because Ino had dashed to be on time, although they'd been placed carefully on top of the clear plastic the Yamanaka shop used to wrap flowers. Chouji ate one sweet, attempting moderation, and offered them to his team-mates.

Ino refused, but Shikamaru took one. _Ino could cook?_

Chouji was touched by the gift, and held an Akimichi's warm-hearted and supportive pleasure that someone else had ventured into the domain of cookery.

"These are great, Ino! It's lemon and mint, this flavouring?"

Ino nodded. "From our own plants. Lemon blossom and the juice of one lemon, and the water was strained through crushed mint."

The recipe was simple, Ino didn't say. Chouji could probably tell, anyway. The sweet treats were a child's recipe - icing sugar and water, and the only skill required was patience to get the consistency right so it'd set. She hadn't made these since she was about seven and she and Hana-chan had been scolded regularly for painting the kitchen white with all that sugar. They had used to put dye into the icing, and months of practice had been needed before they stopped making sludge by over-addition of water. Now she was older, she attempted to make the present a little more sophisticated.

She'd felt like she was preparing for a date, last night. After she'd finished preparing the sweets and put them in her fridge to set, her mind had kept returning to them and to concerns about the next day, the start of this reformed Team Ten.

Some friends from the botantical gardens the Yamanaka shop bought seedlings from had invited her to come on a shopping trip, and she'd felt the novel responsibility of being busy with shinobi business (it was normally left it to her to bully the team into work, and she would leave it until she had a quiet time and nothing else planned). None of the rest of her team had a social life, and it would be sad to lose out on hers, but she'd make that sacrifice if it meant they could move on from what had effectively been a long holiday interspersed with D-rank chores. She was ready to grow up, or so she hoped.

* * *

Grow up they didn't, in that day. They spent the time until dinner in various states of sprawl under a weeping willow tree that was a fair distance out from the main forest. It formed a curtain around them, cooling them from the sun. The basket of candy Ino had bought lay in between them, albeit angled towards Chouji.

"This brings back memories..." Ino said, wistful.

"Yeah." Chouji said, "We always used to think we were so grown up to be allowed all the way out here on our own."

Shikamaru snickered. He'd never not been allowed out here.

"Just because you live in the middle of nowhere!" Ino was enjoying her reminiscence too much to chase him and disrupt the peace, but she waved a hand indignantly.

"I think my parents knew I wouldn't bother to get lost..." Never let it be said he couldn't be a peace-maker.

"Huh. Well Chouji and me don't have a freaking villa and acres of land, we thought it was cool."

"Ahh" Shikamaru rolled onto his back, looking at the branches shifting in the wind, trailing down towards them. "I think it's cool too. Rumiko and I spent longer than you'd think playing at exploring around in the woods."

"You wouldn't think it to look at you." She poked his chest "But I always suspected you didn't spend your _whole_ childhood staring up at nothing."

Chouji nodded. "When we used to visit the forest he always knew where we were going and what trees you could climb."

To Chouji, tree-climbing had always been a difficult skill. Ino had loved exploring the seemingly-huge forest off the Nara lands, and been amazed and enthusiastic about the place and the wild flowers to be found there. She'd picked them reverently and given them to the boys to carry, becoming furious if they damaged them on the journeys back before she could present them to her mother and ask if they could go in the shop. They'd had to climb trees with flowers between their teeth and in their pockets, trying not to squash the delicate plants if they slipped.

Chouji had dreaded those trips, although luckily the distance between the forest and their respective houses made them rare enough to be tolerable for the boy. But he remembered vividly the seemingly eternal explorations: Shikamaru always leading them, too far ahead for the boys to talk. The back of his friend's head had seemed distant, and the struggles to keep up had sometimes driven him to anger and resentment at his friend, who could be lazy but still find stuff like this effortless. He'd never mentioned that to the Nara.

"Ooh, I forgot about doing that!" Ino remembered the visits in a far more positive light "We should go explore there again sometime, that'd be cool. Do you still go there, Shikamaru?"

"Yeah." Shikamaru didn't expand on it.

"So, what is there there to do?"

"Not that much, really. If you get more than a kilometre or so in, it's just like the forests the out-roads pass through." These were the roads that led to outside the hidden-village territory. "Actually, when Chouji's allowed to get back to full activity, I know a chakra-control thing you can learn in a forest"

He trailed off, amused by the mental image of Ino getting more and more annoyed by the task. She'd start throwing things at the tree in under twenty minutes, he'd bet. _Heh._ Tree climbing would be a great team building exercise. He'd mention it to Asuma.

"Say-what? Our village's laziest ninja actually admits to working for his genius?"

Chouji was looking up at him in surprise as well. Shikamaru was torn between playing down the training – _training, me? _- and being open about it. He decided to tell them the basic situation in which he'd learnt tree-climbing. He'd mentioned it to Chouji, hadn't he?

"When we were ten, and they threatened to kick me out, I taught myself all the facts from the books, and my sister taught me to walk up trees."

He was absently looking at Chouji as he spoke, and he could tell the exact moment when other boy connected that event with what he'd learnt about Shikamaru and the Kyuubi. Shikamaru looked down. He didn't want or need Chouji's sympathy.

"It's a useful skill" he distracted his friend from thinking about the other thing. "Using chakra to stabilise yourself and walk vertically."

"Your sister could do that! I remember now!" Ino was looking at him as well, excitement in her voice. Rumiko hadn't known her very well, but she'd seen the Nara girl as a kind of role model for a while, around the time the older female was practicing jutsu for the genin exam and then getting ready to leave Konoha. In retrospect, his sister been showing off to them, Shikamaru thought. Ino wouldn't be impressed now, particularly since Rumiko dressed weirdly and swore all the time.

"Yeah, that's it. I'd show you, but I don't want to get up."

"We should learn that, I think. It'd be a good basic skill." Ino sounded very much like a leader.

Chouji ate another sweet, but gave Shikamaru a here-we-go-again look.

"I guess so." the Akimichi contributed when Ino looked at him. It'd help for climbing trees, at least, he thought. He still wasn't agile enough to be good at that.

Shikamaru smiled up at the sky. Ino learning it would be amusing, at least.

* * *

A relatively happy chapter... I hope the Team Ten dynamic works for this. I wanted to give the impression that they used to spend a lot of time together and are just now kinda getting that back.

Please review.


	24. C'est La Vie

Rumiko ran outside as they walked past the house, shrieking at her brother.

"Shikamaru, I've got a letter for you to take if you're going past the main block!"

When she reached the trio, Shikamaru saw she was holding out a folded envelope with the name of her nominal boyfriend on it.

"You're not even going to see him?" Shikamaru asked, not kindly. He took the envelope, looked at it in distaste. That was harsh, and although he didn't particularly like his sister's partner, he wasn't happy to be giving him some half-assed letter.

Rumiko half sighed, half moaned.

Ino and Chouji were looking a little put out at the interruption, but Shikamaru looked at his sister steadily, knowing she would regret writing whatever was in the letter by the time it reached its recipient.

"Oh, fuck, just leave it then. I don't know what to do!" She grabbed it back, turned and hurried back to the house.

Ino watched the retreating beaded head. Shikamaru's sister had been wearing a lime-green t-shirt with swirling designs hand-drawn on it in ink, flounces and tassels and what looked like a ripped up scarf sewed down one side so it looked like half a skirt. She'd been wearing beige shorts under it. Ugly shorts.

"Let's just go, shall we." Shikamaru started walking, and the two followed, Chouji with great enthusiasm now food was imminent.

* * *

Asuma had booked a table and was sitting there languidly eating peanuts when they arrived. He hadn't been allowed to smoke in the restaurant, and was feeling very unhelpful, even towards his kids. He sat silently through the meal, feeling too annoyed at the world to even caution Chouji as he devoured all the meat. Luckily for the Akimichi, Ino was eating a salad, uncharacteristically tolerant of her greedy team-mate. Asuma looked at the third genin. Shikamaru was actually talking to Ino, which made the jonin raise an eyebrow. They were talking. Civilly. Shikamaru wasn't being reticent, and Ino wasn't being bitchy. Great, this day had already been so annoying, now it was confusing him as well...

* * *

Despite the fact that Asuma had been decidedly unhelpful, the meal was fairly enjoyable. Ino had agreed to help Shikamaru find a scarf and even come up with suggestions when he explained the shadow bind concepts to her, and although Shikamaru was not pleased to be going shopping with his vain team-mate, she'd been enthusiastic and so genuinely pleased that he was doing things on his own initiative he felt unable to refuse her support. _Remember what you and Chouji said..._

It was a little annoying to have to explain the chakra patterns to her, but his father had always told him it was helpful to explain things to people less intelligent than you, because it make you understand the concepts better yourself. And he had to admit that it was at least a bit useful in putting his thoughts about the kagemane principles in order. Besides, talking to her he found she was cleverer than he'd thought.

It was weird that she was being so supportive, but nice that she was being so much less troublesome. Maybe it _was_ worth putting effort into the team, even if just to avoid being harassed into doing it.

* * *

So it was as a result of the meal that Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru were to be found in the commercial district of Konoha. _Together_. 

Shikamaru was regretting agreeing to the excursion. He had always been aware that Ino had friends, friends of the giggly girly staring gossipy type, but the truth of it had never been quite so obvious as it was now.

Females were following them, and his name and hers were being spoken in close conjunction. Sometime joined by 'loves' or 'got together with' or the like. School-girls were trailing behind them at what _completely failed_ to be a discreet distance, and even some of the shopkeepers were speaking to each other, covering their mouths with their hands and following the two (_not _a couple) with their eyes. Ino was trying valiantly to ignore them, and hissing to her partner (_platonic_, _not that you ditzes know what that means!_), making snapping remarks about the infantile behaviour. Shikamaru had a headache, and knew that Ino would make him suffer later when she was attacked with insinuations of a relationship between them. _Troublesome... _

The two separate groups of Ino's shallow friends went into giggling overdrive in the haberdashery shop, when having purchased fingerless gloves for him she deftly attached the thread she'd been manipulating to the edge of one glove, winding around his wrist. Metal beads weighted the other end of the wire-reinforced string, and it would reach around four meters long at full extension. Ino had been sure that a smaller amount of weighted material be better to use to ambush people in the bind than the alternative, and the Nara had had to concede that point. Even the thin connection of the string between him and his victim would let him paralyse them.

Unfortunately, the ridiculous girls didn't know that the black fabric was a ninja tool and not a bracelet. _Hmph. _

Even less fortunately, one of them commented on it loudly as Shikamaru paid the shopkeeper. The ensuing cat-fight knocked over a basket of miniscule metal beads, which rolled around their feet, and Ino screamed in frustration and stomped outside, knocking the dainty but snarling girl down, where she tripped on the underfoot beads. He decided not to risk Ino's wrath by helping the fallen gossiper up, but almost started picking the beads up (so well had he been trained by his fierce mother), before she called him in a voice tense with exasperated fury. He sheepishly left the shop.

* * *

Ino declared she was going home, and he knew better than to try and talk to her. Relieved at the chance to put off buying a scarf (should he still bother to do that?), he headed back to his own house.

* * *


	25. Sunny Afternoon

The next week was one Shikamaru would remember as an overly busy mixture of training and C-rank missions, coupled with a sense of rising tension in his sister's behaviour. Team Ten's reform had not played out as they had thought it would. The day after Ino and Shikamaru's somewhat disastrous shopping trip, they had been met promptly at the practice grounds by Asuma, who had been slightly more attentive to his team than usual.

But who had shortly brushed them off by giving them a mission. To be more precise, a list of missions.

The majority of Genin teams, it transpired, were either low-rank and doing D-ranked missions, or too busy to do missions because they had team-mates or otherwise vested interests in the chuunin exams. So when Asuma had asked for a C-rank mission, he'd been met by an overjoyed designator pressing them to work hard. And Asuma had decided that it would be much easier to let his team wear out their enthusiasm on missions than to train them himself.

Ino sussed this out, and confronted the jounin about the matter after Team Ten returned from delivering letters to three different minor villages and spending an hour chasing down the location of a house that turned out to be built up a tree in between acres of farm-land and thick forestry. The argument was... volatile. Both of her team-mates realised she hadn't shouted at either of them like that recently, and felt all the more glad they'd gone along with the missions dutifully.

* * *

"She's really serious about this" Chouji commented. 

Five days of escort missions and training in the Nara fields had passed, and Shikamaru had not yet been been caught watching clouds during team business. If he was leaning against the thick post in such a manner that his head tilted towards the sky... that was merely him enjoying his break to the fullest.

Nonetheless, the combination of the clouds and heat (and most importantly the fact he'd exhausted more chakra than he'd possessed before the last few days of intense physical activity) made him reluctant to speak.

Chouji continued speaking, knowing Shikamaru too well to be perturbed by the other genin's silence.

"I thought she'd tell Asuma to forget about the whole thing, 'specially after that fiasco with teaching the kid."

Shikamaru looked at Ino, who was practising taijutsu forms. He contemplated his reply carefully.

"I think she's in this for good. It wasn't just about bitch-fighting with Sakura, it's about female pride. And we know what a troublesome thing _that_ is."

"_Um_." Chouji agreed emphatically. There was a silence, during which a frown grew more prominent on the Akimichi's face. He spoke when he found no way around the conclusion his mind reached.

"Asuma-sensei'll only give us more missions if we ask him to teach, and Ino's going to want to do them all."

That was not something either of them wanted. Five days of dull missions – only slightly more tolerable than the D-rank menial tasks – had worn on the nerves of both boys as much as it had Ino's. They both considered the problem.

Shikamaru assumed a thoughtful expression; he slid down the post leisurely, and as his knees reached a fixed crouch position he balanced one arm neatly on top of them. He supported his other arm on top of that one, and rested his chin on that hand. His fingers unconsciously spread to touch the whisker-marks on one cheek, and his thumb rested against the marks on the other side. He was still watching Ino.

Chouji glanced down at him, then dropped to a seated position on the floor, looking curiously at his friend.

An almost mischievous expression on the lazy genin's face. It looked out of place there, in the opinion of Chouji.

"I know what we could learn..."

* * *

Ino and Chouji both had more aptitude for the tree-climbing exercise than Shikamaru had had when he'd first started at learning it, but neither found it nearly as easy to learn how to modulate their chakra and balance, so their initial success was followed by a complete lack of progress. Ino worked at it with furious determination, and Chouji with steady resolve, but on the third day of working on it in the afternoons after completing missions, Shikamaru was still left to occupy himself while they practised. 

He had spent a while working at throwing the weighted string that he was using as a snare for his _kagemane_, and he had learnt to aim the weights and cast it from a variety of ranges and angles to hit specific leaves. Further practice on his own served only to remind him why he disliked work in the first place, and so he ended up resting in a relaxed slump in the outskirts of the wood, keeping a vague eye on the progress of his team-mate up their respective trees.

His attention had managed to fully shift up towards to clouds when he noticed someone's eyes on him from behind. He turned his head back towards them, and was mildly surprised when the Sand _kunoichi_ Temari appeared out of the undergrowth.

He raised an eyebrow, head cocked uncomfortably to survey her, resisting the urge to get to his feet. Supporting oneself on one elbow was not a prime stance for defence. If she attacked, this situation would become troublesome. Still, he didn't fight all that well anyway. He'd rather remain obviously non-threatening for now, and hope she was less psychotic than Gaara.

"Nara Shikamaru."_ (Geez, _he thought,_ she sounds like my mother in a mood.)_ "Are you really the same as my brother?"

"No." He looked away from her and down, jaw set.

He wasn't sure what to expect as she moved towards him. She was approaching slowly, and without looking he used his thumb to flick the weight from his shadow-trap into his palm, so he could flick the weight towards her and the string would unravel between them. It was a precaution - he'd catch her with the bind if she started threatening him. He didn't look directly at her, but he was certainly attentive - he noticed absently that she was less silent in the undergrowth than a Leaf ninja. Carrying a giant fan everywhere did inhibit stealth somewhat.

She paused, examining him.

"Gaara doesn't _lie_. And from the state he was in after that confrontation of yours... heh. No-one as pathetic-looking as you should have survived him like that."

Shikamaru tilted his head towards the tree-tops, seeing Chouji's bulk ten meters off the ground and climbing.

He hadn't been able to spot Ino, but a flight of birds beat the air and he heard the blond shrieking and falling. Temari's attention shifted momentarily, but then she shook herself, advanced further; crouched, feet flat on the floor but upper body leant forward, one arm behind her and holding the fan ready. The other hand lifted, and her callused fingers traced the whisker-marks that ran along his cheek. Shikamaru shifted involuntarily, as if about to run. The awkwardly checked reflex and the look in his eyes awoke emotion in Temari.

"You were being _honest_" She said the word in a moment of revelation, and when she continued speaking it was to explain herself to him. "When you said you weren't like Gaara - you are a _jinchuuriki_, same as he is, but you're – soft. Just – another – Leaf - brat..."

He looked up at her. Her face was close to his, and her eyes were intent. For a second, she stayed there, staring at him in some unusual version of perception as he looked at her. Then she moved back, her trained speed taking him by surprise.

She pulled back her arm (in a motion familiar to him from years of Ino-tolerance, but he didn't have time to react).

She slapped him across the cheek.

She stood and turned away in a single smooth movement, choking, hissed - "_I hate you!_" - and then ran.

Shikamaru made an abortive motion to stand up and follow her, then checked it, and slumped back into the grass.

Flat on his back, he looked up at the clouds, raising a hand absently to his cheek and giving the sky a disgruntled look as he felt the skin stinging.

"Troublesome. What does she know about me?"

* * *

Ino had fallen from the tree she was climbing in surprise when she'd seen the Sand girl talking to Shikamaru, and proceeded to unashamedly snoop as she'd seen him leaning in close to her. It was completely unsurprising that a female would slap him, particularly since he hadn't sat up to talk to her, but - 

-It didn't look like a romantic thing. Yamanaka Ino was one of the most accomplished socialites of Konoha, and she knew a lot about behaviour and body language. And a lot about interpreting tones of voice.

The conversation she'd overheard, though, was intriguing despite the disappointing lack of a juicy inter-village love story.

Temari had seemed genuinely upset, although all previous information indicated she was a bitch. Ino was tempted to confront Shikamaru to find out more, but she was experienced in coaxing out secrets – it'd help to know what the issue was before jumping into it.

... and she knew she'd heard the term _jinchuuriki_ before. What the hell did that mean? More interestingly (Ino had never been a fan of ninja jargon, so she dismissed the mysterious term shortly) - why would you compare Konoha's prime slacker with the deranged Sand kid?

* * *

Japanese Glossary

_Kunoichi _– Female ninja

_Kagemane_ – Shadow Bind, Shikamaru's principle move

_Jinchuuriki_ – demon-host, wat. Some say it literally means power-of-human-sacrifice, but I suspect any such etymology is fictional. It's a word made up by Kishimoto, as far as google-searches and wikipedia can tell.


	26. o nesciente, noli me cognoscere!

Shikamaru was haunted by that conversation for the rest of the afternoon. _No,_ he thought,_ I'm not a hardened killer like Gaara. So what that I'm not insane; that I'm sheltered and I pretty much fit within the confines of 'normal' for a Konoha genin. I have every right to be normal and it's none of your business if I am._

That sounded petulant, said the logical part of his brain. Not to mention stupid. But he couldn't help but think about it.

_She didn't need to tell me all that. I know I'm not like Gaara. _

_Why did she slap me? _

_It's none of their business how I compare to their brother._

* * *

Ino got bored with the tree-climbing around half an hour after Shikamaru's conversation with Temari, and provided a useful distraction for Shikamaru, who practised catching her in the shadow bind while she threw various projectiles at him. Neither of them was performing at their best, though, and the team practice dissipated as soon as Chouji descended from the trees.

* * *

During the walk back across the fields together, Chouji was conscious that both of his friends were preoccupied by something. Ino was watching Shikamaru with the kind of evaluating look she generally reserved for anyone claiming to be 'as hot as Sasuke', and Shikamaru was sporadically frowning and rubbing a hand across his jaw-bone, eyes looking at the distant landscape and not the sky. Finally, he caught Ino looking at him and raised an eyebrow in question.

Ino chewed on her bottom lip. Then tossed her hair, looking away and seeming to drop the matter.

They reached the highest part of the sloped field, and Shikamaru yawned as he glanced down over Konoha, slowing his walk and looking back, wondering if he could stay for a while and watch clouds before going in to eat.

Chouji had watched him glance backwards, and as he was walking behind the other two he could see his friend's expression as in Ino spoke abruptly to Shikamaru.

"What does _jinchuuriki_ mean?"

The plump genin didn't know that himself, but Shikamaru visibly flinched. Ino had her head tilted to one side, tone light and showing that the question was insignificant to her. She noticed his expression, and stopped walking. He looked at her, body language terse and defensive, then he turned and walked determinedly on.

She and Chouji both hurried after him. She noticed Chouji's look was concerned, but not really confused. What the hell was this about?

She caught up, but stayed a little behind Shikamaru, respectful that she might have somehow (_accidentally!_) hurt his feelings. She was surprised when he spoke, voice strained.

"Please _don't_ find that out, Ino."

She nodded, confused. He couldn't see, but she decided not to voice agreement out loud. She didn't want to promise something that she'd break.

They didn't strike up another conversation, only saying cursory goodbyes at Shikamaru's door.

* * *

Shikamaru had been wondering what to say to her, mind working frantically to think of how to explain the whole issue. But though he knew he should tell her himself rather than leave her to investigate that term - _jinchuuriki_, and being called that sent a shiver down his spine – when her looking at it would draw far too much attention to it. He hadn't known how to start a conversation about the whole troublesome matter.

He became convinced as soon as they walked on past his house that he should have talked about it and not let them go just yet. He wanted to run after Ino and tell her the idiotic secret so he wouldn't spend the night in futile worry about it, but he restrained himself from dashing after them. _Kages, why was it such a big issue?_ He didn't want her to stare at him like that Temari girl, intent and maybe disgusted by him; he wanted even less to let Ino wandering around suspicious of him. She'd doubtless wonder if he had some kind of dirty secret, some skeleton in his closet. Why the fuck should he have to worry about this, it didn't affect anything except people's behaviour towards him that Naruto's stupid fucking father had sealed an even more idiotic fox-thing inside him. Why couldn't people realise it didn't fucking matter? That bastard Yondaime, leaving him to have to worry about trusting people and confiding in them when he'd rather the whole world just forgot about it...

"Uh, Shikamaru? Why are you standing on in the door?"

Rumiko was leaning out of her bed-room window, rebraiding a lock of hair. He was leaning against the outside of the front door, and had been since Team Ten had left. _Oops._

"I'm thinking."

"You're brooding, and don't tell me you're not."

He shrugged, and went inside. He deliberated for a moment, then went into her room and slumped down onto her bed.

"That kunoichi from Sand came onto our land."

"Hn, Temari? Why?"

"Yeah, her. She came and stared at me, then said I wasn't like Gaara, then slapped me and left." The whole incident sounded bizarre in recollection.

Rumiko picked up the candle on her dressing table, then held it at an angle over her hair so a drop of wax rolled onto the end of the thin plait. She quickly pulled the bead down over it, effectively gluing the braid in place.

"She's Gaara's sister." Rumiko said it as if it was significant, but guessed Shikamaru hadn't understood the same things she had from it when he looked at her, confused. She explained:

"So she's spent her life trying to stop her screwed-up possessed sibling from killing people. And she sees you being all – well, not normal, but at least not sociopathic. So she's either upset she can't blame his fucked-up-ness on him being a demon-host-type-person, or she's figures that whoever did whatever to him apparently didn't do it right, or ... well, anything. Those Sand kids have a pretty shitty life, from what I've seen. So, she's, like, jealous of your normality."

Shikamaru frowned. That didn't make much sense. But some of it did – Temari was jealous that her brother was less sane than he was. Although he was vaguely resentful that he would be assumed to be like the Sand demon-host, and maybe just a bit sympathetic to Temari, he felt suddenly and strongly that he was out of his depth. Temari had said he was 'soft', and it was pretty much true – he'd never been in a real fight between shinobi, but she had called him a _jinchuuriki_ - he didn't have any kind of demonic abilities to justify the title. In terms of his standing as a ninja, he _was_ normal. But he'd be treated – by Gaara, at least – as if he had freaky demon skillz.

Urgh, being a demon-host was troublesome.

Rumiko snickered at him, and he realised he'd made that complaint aloud.

"At least you're not crazy" She added, then poked him and asked: "Are you?"

"I'm lazy, Rumiko, there's a distinct difference."

She reached behind him on the bed to retrieve a box of beads, then returned to pick up her candle and affixed another bead. _Shikamaru finds it easier than the rest of us do to acknowledge what he is. That's a good thing, right? _

_He's right, of course, that there's no real reason for him to be ashamed of the fact the Kyuubi was sealed in him. It wasn't something he had any control over. _

* * *

Shikamaru was stuck on thinking about Temari's words. He was soft, that made him vulnerable, particularly to people as predatory as Gaara. _She was amazed I survived one confrontation with him, and I probably wouldn't survive another. She knows where this house is, and she can tell him. And probably will. Rumiko spoke to Kankuro, this means Gaara must have said something about me to them. Which means he's interested enough in me to be likely to come back again. And probably kill me. I'm not like he is, and that's decidedly a disadvantage here. _

* * *

On the next day, Team Ten were subdued as they walked through the forest with two noble children. The mission was to accompany the pair to their uncle's holdings, a day's walk at civilian pace away. They'd come to attend the chuunin exams, but their father, an influential lord, had ordered them sent away. Shikamaru, who may or may not have been trying to distract himself from what to say to Ino, found himself wondering at their motives in getting the kids out of the region. He thought back to the stacking of the preliminaries – the finals were more carefully decided, pairings there were less significant because it would be likely that any trouble would be before or unrelated to those matches. Gaara had attacked Zaku, but it seemed to be of his own volition. A treaty between the two Villages... Now he came to think of it, Rumiko had mentioned that the Sand had only sent minimal numbers of dignitaries, none of whom were important civilians. Had this lord sensed trouble and decided to back out while he could?

Ino was involved in a discussion about flowers with the children. The older of them, a girl, was pointing to various flora and haughtily demanding information on them, while the younger, a boy, was snorting in disgust at the feminine occupation. Chouji had intervened on the behalf of flowers (You can use herbs make food taste nicer) and then been drawn to meaningfully emphasise other merits when the former response prompted a comment on his weight (_and_ you can use them to _kill_ _people_, you brat!) but he had dropped out of the conversation in order to restrain himself from violence towards the snooty children.

Walking behind the children and Ino, Chouji felt free to make a quiet enquiry.

"You okay, Shikamaru? You're _too_ thoughtful."

"Meh."

"It's about Ino, isn't it. And," he frowned meaningfully. "That other thing."

"Do you know what _jinchuuriki _means?" Shikamaru asked. He was talking quietly, but with the kind of emphasis that showed the topic was occupying his full attention.

Chouji shook his head. He had a pretty good idea of what Ino's question had related to, but this was Shikamaru, and Shikamaru didn't resent answering Chouji's questions in full, so he didn't need to pretend to be clear on things he didn't understand.

Shikamaru folded his arms, his voice taking on a familiar 'teaching' intonation.

"_Jinchuuriki_ is a term literally meaning 'living sacrifice', used historically to describe an individual permanently altered by jutsu, like the Kaguya clan, who were artifically given the equivalent of a bloodline limit at the cost of their mental and physical stability. Basically people who were altered to be better ninja or soldier, sacrificed for the good of their country. Nowadays there are very few shinobi or shinobi clans that do things like that to people, and the word's fallen out of usage expect to apply to demon-hosts. In any case, Temari used that to describe Gaara."

"And you." Chouji looked uncomfortable with this, remembering his friend flinching as Ino asked about the word. He wondered how Shikamaru knew stuff like that, and imagined with unease a younger Shikamaru hearing the unfamiliar term as abuse, curiously looking it up. Not for the first time, Chouji felt curious how things really affected the indifferent-seeming genin – did it hurt him, to be given a label with such a dark history?

"Yeah." the so-called _jinchuuriki_ nodded, grim.

Shikamru could see the difference between himself and Gaara, now: he, Shikamaru, was sacrificed to save Konoha from a demon. Gaara was what _jinchuuriki_ had been historically – someone created to kill.

They walked on in silence, both listening to the sound of Ino's forcedly cheerful voice, tuning out the words.

* * *

Well, this chapter's full of information. Read carefully... It has lots of extras, too: etymology and derivations for all, sly leetspeak, and conspiracy theories. Aren't you lucky, kiddies? XD patronisation for all. 


	27. Tries, but Misunderstands

This chapter and the next two dedicated to Marz1. Because: Gaara.

* * *

Ino didn't mention the question Shikamaru hadn't answered, and he used the excuse that she was busy with the children on the way there, and that that they were too far apart to talk as they hurried back jumping through the trees. They didn't reach Konoha till dusk, and they went straight home then. 

The house was quiet as he entered, the only light in the hallway was that emanating from the partly opened kitchen door. Shikamaru headed there, and was greeted by his parents, but his attention was caught by the fact that there was a half-finished plate of food on the table. Rumiko had... stormed out?

He wondered whether he should take her deserted place at the table, but he decided not to and moved round to the other side. His mother was just finishing her meal, and his father was sitting with his plate pushed forward and arms folded over the table. Neither of them looked visibly angry or upset, which seemed to be a good thing. Had Rumiko told them about her girlfriend and whatever the problem with that was?

Whatever. They didn't seem inclined to speak about it to him, (_probably thought he was too young to understand. Tch, Nara intelligence here!_) so he didn't ask, telling them about Chouji chasing the rich escortee kid into a river. He wasn't certain what he should say when they asked if he had had a nice day, because really he hadn't, but they didn't need more stress if they'd already had an argument with Rumiko. Or whatever. He made his voice cheerful, and left the table without having discussed anything important.

* * *

Late at night, Shikamaru was woken. He didn't recognise why for a while, but eventually he realised he was hearing the deer moving rapidly. The noises they made was familiar from long hours spent watching clouds near them, and so his subconscious took a while to notice them. He lay there, listening to animal sounds of agitation. Maybe Rumiko had come back drunk and scared them? 

After a few minutes, the fact that this wasn't normal behaviour permeated his sluggish mind. He got up, eyes blinking with sleep but then shutting again. His feet automatically moved to the window, and he didn't need to open his eyes to run his hand along the window-frame and find the latch. He opened it, enjoying the cold air against his face. A faint breeze moved his loose hair, and he sighed before he looked out. _The stupid deer better not be having a party or something._

It was lighter than he'd expected, the moon illuminating the shape of the shrubs and few trees, and making the woods a black mass against the grey surroundings. The deer had all moved away from one tree on the near side of the field to the house. Something was moving behind the tree, lighter than the grass. Shikamaru stuck his head out of the window, rubbing his eyes. A pattern of something light and almost white, dancing in swirls around a central point. Insects?

He'd better have a look. If his parents woke up to find the deer dead, it'd be bad.

He hoisted himself up and over the windowsill, shivering a little in the fresh air. He wasn't wearing a shirt... Whatever, he'd be inside and back in bed as soon as he'd got a look at whatever was over there.

Closer, he realised the movement was one fluid mass of something pale, broken into clumps. It was moving randomly but to a greater pattern, like eddies of water or as if it was.. orbiting something. There was something behind the tree.

A red shape, rich and vibrant even in the toneless light of the pale moon. The colour of blood. Shikamaru felt a chill of fear run through him, and he really hoped Rumiko was back and in bed.

* * *

The patch of crimson moved; Shikamaru blinked as his sleepy mind belatedly recognised it as a head, and hair. 

Gaara stepped out from behind the tree, eyes vicious.

Shikamaru froze.

Gaara watched him, eyes and skin seeming unnaturally bright in contrast to the dark lines around them. The air was thick with the predatory threat he brought, and his sand was weaving around him. Shikamaru forced himself to speak, breaking the almost palpable tension that the silence held.

"What are you doing here?"

Gaara smiled, and he seemed almost genuinely pleased by something. On his face, the expression bespoke danger rather than joy.

"To confirm my existence, Nara Shikamaru. To kill you."

"And" He wanted to take a step away from that grin " - my death is a prerequisite for that?"

"You threaten my existence with your own!" The tone was sharp but still quiet. The threat was reinforced as his sand started changing its movements, reaching around and behind the Leaf genin.

Gaara's obvious intention to kill lent a cold emphasis to his words, horrific to an unpractised shinobi. It wasn't only that that disturbed Shikamaru: the Sand-nin was speaking in complete honesty, and he would be completely unrepentant at murdering. Temari's words came back to Shikamaru, and he had never felt quite as outmatched as he was now. It was with great difficulty he made himself pick up the attitude he'd used to argue with the murderous demon-host before.

"I'm not a threat to you, Gaara. I haven't got any weapons on me at the moment, and I have no _jutsu_ that would hurt you. My one non-standard skill is the shadow bind, and that's not effective against you, see."

He raised his open hands, as if the gesture had any value between trained assassins. Gaara's sand didn't advance further, so Shikamaru sat himself on the dewy grass. His most likely route of escape was to convince Gaara of his inferiority – he'd walked away from the Sand genin triumphant, but if he demonstrated subservience... it probably won't work. _Give it a go anyway, because fighting unarmed and wearing only boxers is not advisable. Why didn't I pick up even a kunai or – anything?_

He sat down, resisting the urge to wipe the nervous beads of sweat off the back of his neck. He smiled at Gaara, who hadn't moved an inch.

"Sit down." He gestured to the grass, keeping his voice carefully even. "I surrender pre-emptively. I'm not similar to you, even if I am a fellow so-called _jinchuuriki_."

He had Gaara's full attention, and the other boy's eyes were clearer and less wild. He didn't move, though, so Shikamaru decided to say more, fumbling for a topic before deciding on challenging the Sand-nin's creed of existence. As he spoke, he found himself turning to nihilistic views, and to beliefs he had found himself thinking of in some of his more depressed times. An attitude, he thought, that Gaara should be able to comprehend from his own experience.

"I'm too lazy to be interested in superiority or death-matches. No-one needs to affirm their existence, because the fact they realise it's an issue proves they are real in itself. And we don't need to do anything more than simply exist as it is. Worrying about the problem of life doesn't change anything. We can't change anything. That's why there's no need to kill, no need for love or action or supposition. All those things are just what we invent to clutter up our lives; they're all the same when you come down to it. Petty exigences that cloud over the simple fact that we _are_ here, and will be until death. Our own lives and deaths are the only measures of existence, and killing does nothing to affect that."

Gaara didn't speak. He had relaxed a little, but he concentrated and glared in agitation. Then he took a decisive step towards Shikamaru, sand following him like the train of a dress.

"You're... denying the truth of your own existence." He sneered. "Get up!"

"Che." It was difficult beyond belief to not sound scared, but Shikamaru donned a proud air and pretended not to be aware of the sand. "I invited you to take a seat, and this is my field."

"The purpose of a _jinchuuriki's_ existence is to kill! To destroy! Through those actions we live! You and I will fight, and I will test myself, and I will prove my existence."

"I just born on the wrong day, Gaara." Scorn him, ignore his threats. He wants to fight, not just to kill, so I have a chance.

But those words were a reminder to Gaara of the differences between them. All the wrong differences. Like the fact that he was standing by a house where he'd watched a family live in harmony. Gaara was thrown back to the idea that it was only himself who was unwanted; Shikamaru was what he was through co-incidence, whereas he, Sabaku no Gaara, had been born to be the shell of a demon, to be a killer and to love only himself.

Shukaku rose up inside his mind, and the demon's fury and bloodlust became indistinguishable from Gaara's own.

"Fight me or not, it hardly matters. _You'll die either way!!_"


	28. The End of The World As We Know It

"Fight me or not, it hardly matters. _You'll die either way!!_"

With that, the sand that had been rolling around his feet threw itself up into spikes that ripped along the grass, sending Shikamaru rolling backwards hurriedly.

_Shit, his eyes_. Bloodshot and maddened, and then Gaara grinned slowly, insanely, and laughed.

Shikamaru jumped backwards, heart pounding, as the sand reached out and tried to catch him. It came from another direction, and spears of it rose from the ground where he'd aimed to land. He used chakra and twisted in the air, sweat running into his eyes. The Kyuubi's seal burned itself visible on his skin, though he didn't notice, eyes scanning for further attacks as he balanced his weight.

Only to dash away again as the sand resumed its attack.

"Yes... _run_! Scared, are you? Heart pounding, _struggle_, fight to the end of your existance!"

The snarling tone suddenly turned gentle, and he murmured: "It'll stain our sand, for you."

Shikamaru looked up, shocked by the abrupt change. His opponent's eyes were out of focus, hardly aware of Shikamaru as he evaded the deadly sand. Shikamaru could feel his heart pounding. Somehow, he couldn't come up with any strategy. Gaara hadn't moved, still calm. The deranged genin commented almost petulantly: "He still isn't fighting, mother."

_Mother?! _

"But you're going to die now!" He shrieked, and the sand became truly frenzied. "Fight or die, _jinchuuriki_. This is the reason you exist; either to bleed - weak, you die - to feed my sand... or to struggle like a rat and challenge me!" He laughed madly, terribly.

* * *

And then, a knife was thrown. 

Nara Shikaku: walking forwards, one hand holding a brace of shuriken and the other with a second kunai between the fingers even as he used it to hold the crutch he leant on.

Shikamaru moved back into a defensible position, eyes automatically tracing the weapon's path as it flew straight for Gaara's face. Tension; a heart-beat; the pulse of chakra. Time slowed, each grain of sand was significant as they moved purposefully up, racing the thrown kunai.

The sand coagulated, moulding itself into a shield as the kunai reached towards it. The metal slammed through the grains of stone, sending some of it spurting out of the way while the surrounding grains compacted tighter, dissipating the force from the throw, trying ito hold the weapon away from the sand's master.

The point penetrated through the barrier.

It stopped an inch short of Gaara's eye.

The sand dropped back down, the knife thudding upon the floor of the field as Gaara's eyes followed the trajectory backwards. A cold smirk split his face as he saw the new arrival, and the sand from the barrier rose and redirected towards Shikaku, Gaara kicking the kunai away from himself.

Shikaku's hands formed the shadow bind's primary seal, the move empowered by the night.

The shadows embraced the light sand, locked Gaara in place, the Suna-nin's face was still turned a little to the side; he'd been carelessly kicking the kunai aside. His eyes rolled to examine Shikaku, his look narrow and furious.

Momentarily, the tableau was fixed; Shikamaru had turned to his father, wanting to warn him about-.

Gaara's head twisted, cords in his neck standing out; he growled with an animal's voice, eyes and voice becoming more and more enraged. Shikaku gasped, pupils shrinking; Shikamaru turned to face him, and saw his father's face was ashen white, and he was staggering backwards.

The _kagemane_ collapsed, and Gaara leapt forwards, sand swirling around him like a cloak or aura made visible. Shikamaru spun to face the other demon-host, peripherally aware of his father dropping to the ground behind him. The elder Nara emitted a choking gasp - he was alive, at least. But not in a state to fight, and Gaara was near enough to crush both of them with sand: Shikamaru had to stop Gaara!

The shadow bind would hurt both of them; that was out. He knew before considering it what the only possible counter-measure against the Suna-nin would be, and he screwed his eyes shut.

And the pulse of chakra in his system was the rhythm he'd been running to, so it was easy to measure it and only a slight mental shift – block it.

A heartbeat, and for a blind second he thought he'd killed himself, because without the warmth of chakra-energy that had been sustaining his movement and keeping him alive, the field was cold and his hair was in his eyes and his hands shook and Gaara, framed by sand, charged.

And then heat and red chakra overtook him.

Shikamaru leapt up and forwards, forming a plan in a split-second. He drew his hands back as he sprang, drawing chakra to them. With a yell he threw his arms out, and flames boiled up from his shadow, which was directly below Gaara. Tracers of crimson spiralled up and spun around the moving sand, which immediately lost its momentum and fell in clumps to the ground, inanimate.

Gaara dropped too, and landed crouched and feral, face contorted as he twisted round in time with Shikamaru's jump - the Leaf ninja had thrown himself over Gaara's head, and the Sand shinobi was very aware that he was a threat, and Shukaku's thoughts matched his own precisely. The fixation of the two on the Kyuubi's host was utterly singleminded as Shikamaru turned gracefully in the air, and the tracery of crackling red chakra drew toward Gaara, blocking the sand's movement despite Gaara's frantic attempts to manipulate it. He could still dissolve his gourd, but if he gave up that he wouldn't be able to take the Shukaku's form. The red-headed ninja wanted the transformation, both he and Shukaku were _craving_ it, but Shikamaru's father stood up shakily behind him, drawing the attention of the two genin back from their fight.

"That's enough." His voice was rough, but deadly serious "If you continue this attack on citizens of Konoha, Sabaku no Gaara, you'll be disqualified from the Chuunin exams. I order you to leave, now!"

Gaara looked from him to Shikamaru, who was in a crouched stance facing him. The other _jinchuuriki_'s loose hair fell over his eyes, but the ruby eyes fixed on him were vivid - and either the irises were glowing or they were reflecting the chakra-light, because they seemed luminescent. The genin's hands were clawed, and the fingers held in a position to readily slash with those claws. The seal of the Kyuubi was visible on his bare flesh; the flame emblem at his sternum glowing a threatening red like heated metal.

Gaara... had never wanted to fight anyone so strongly in his life before. Shukaku was quiet in his mind, focussed intensity and strategy joining their minds, and the demon's silently communicated belief that this creature was a threat to their existence thrilled its carrier. Nara Shikamaru would be the challenge he'd been hoping for, waiting for, and the matched combat between two _jinchuuriki_ would be infinitely more exciting than destroying any mundane chuunin-candidate.

* * *

Shikamaru watched Gaara, aware of the slightest movement of the deer that had fled as far as they could within their confines, aware of his dad's eyes flicking from Gaara to him. His father was shaking, and there was fear in his eyes. Fear directed at him as much as at Gaara. 

It was for that reason that he had frozen when he'd landed, and it had only been Gaara's obvious intention of attacking that had drawn the Kyuubi-host's attention back to the sand-ninja. Mentally, Shikamaru was not nearly as calm as he looked. The Kyuubi's power was latent within his chakra system, and the urge to wrap himself in the flame-like energy was strong. This was scaring him as much as facing Gaara did.

His teeth were sharp and his instinctive leap towards Gaara had alerted him to the fact his body had ... reconfigured itself, somehow. Muscle groups were shifted, so he wasn't comfortable in the stances that were second nature after years of training. He ended up half-crouching, hands splayed, and he allowed himself to obey instincts and watch Gaara, because he was a threat and shinobi principles had much the same attitude to those as demonic instincts did. (And perhaps he was happy with this plan because he didn't want to see his father try not to look at him. But that was secondary.)

Gaara didn't acknowledge his father's words, and Shikamaru was tempted to constrict him in the chakra he was using to keep the sand dormant. But he rebelled against the idea of killing, and he knew that taking that action would convince his family he was as bestial as he seemed to look.

...He wanted to look at his clawed hands, at the fingers that had reshaped themselves to be strongest when curled into hooks. He wanted to cry or scream in frustration at standing here not fighting and not talking, and he wanted to ask, despair, if this change would go away. Even if he did change back, he didn't know if he'd become human again in their eyes.

The three stood there in silence. The wind cooled them, and influenced the blood-red chakra to flicker around the ground like fire.

"Leave." Shikamaru said finally, "And you will kill no-one in the chuunin exams."

He prayed a threat would work, that Gaara would either take it as an indication of Shikamaru's supremacy or a promise to fight if he fulfilled it. One or the other seemed likely.

* * *

Gaara was elated at the prospect of fighting Shikamaru, but the control the Nara had over the demon's chakra was such that the sand-nin knew he could be killed before he could take Shukaku's form. For now, he acceded to the terms, sinking his head. 

The fire-chakra dispersed, though tracers remained peripherally, fading. Gaara drew his sand back into its gourd, and walked away, turning and giving a look full of promise to Shikamaru. Threat, and understanding.

* * *

Shikamaru watched Gaara until he vanished into the night, and then turned to where his father was leaning heavily on his crutch.

* * *


	29. And I Feel Fine

Shikamaru and Shikaku were both startled to hear a voice from the house, but it was Yoshino who broke the awkward moment.

"Who was that? You two, come back inside!"

Shikaku looked at the other ninja – in the calm moonlight, the darkening of the marks across his son's cheeks gave him a devilish appearance – then the older man headed back into the house through the front door. The two open windows were inviting to the younger one, but he decided they needed to discuss the issue now, even if he would be more comfortable hiding in bed till the morning (hoping to be able to deny the Kyuubi's influence then, and pretend that nothing happened). No. He followed through the door his dad had left open.

Yoshino was in the kitchen, preparing tea despite the lateness of the hour. It was an automatic response to uncertainty, (and Shikaku understood that behaviour, he was guilty of it himself). He took his customary seat at the table, ignoring the fact the kitchen was dark – their bedroom light was on, and it was only from that that the room had some light. Yoshino went through the motions of the ritual without noticing the darkness.

Shikamaru hovered in the door to the kitchen. He'd ducked into his room to pull a shirt on, and he had seen a flash of his reflected face – blood-coloured eyes, scar-like marks down his cheeks. He'd moved on quickly, but he didn't want his mother to see his current appearance. Had he stopped channelling chakra from the demon? His own chakra was flowing in his system, having moved out of the self-induced halt. The fox's chakra was present as well, but less strongly – was it fading? He couldn't tell. Kages, he hoped he'd go back to looking like himself.

* * *

"Who was that out there?" Yoshino asked at length. 

"Sabaku no Gaara" Shikaku spoke detachedly, accepting a cup of tea.

Yoshino straightened and looked at her son, who was standing awkwardly in the door-way, face turned down. The slashes across his face looked thick, like a brand across his skin.

"Shikamaru, tea for you." She held it out. Tentatively, eyes lowered, he took the mug; taking a seat in a chair that was pulled a little out from the table.

Yoshino moved over, reaching for the light switch. Shikamaru looked odd in the shadows; hair down and sheepish, she reminded him of how he'd been as a child seeking comfort after a nightmare. But the marks across his cheeks and the glimpse of red in his eyes spoke differently.

She turned on the light: Shikamaru bought a hand up reflexively, pupils dilated in the dark suffering in the sudden illumination. Yoshino saw thick, curled fingernails, and lips pulled back from canine teeth, and for a second she thought her son had been replaced by a savage changeling. But Shikamaru immediately looked down, then up at her through his hair with wide crimson eyes. And the awkward gesture reminded her of when he'd spoken to her about Gaara before (scared of the world, like a little boy again not a demon or even a ninja), so she smiled at him.

Shikamaru shifted awkwardly, drank a sip of scalding tea, hand tense around the mug.

"Shikamaru, did he come here to attack you?" Shikaku spoke, giving his own tea a brooding look.

"Yeah" Shikamaru found speaking a little strange, "He said I threatened his existence. So he wanted to kill me."

Yoshino made an angry noise.

"He's gone now." Her son replied.

Shikamaru drunk his tea, Yoshino doing the same. After a silence, comfortable to those two but not the father, Shikaku chunked his mug down on the table.

"What did you do, Shikamaru?" He asked.

Shikamaru looked at his hand, the tendons prominent as the fingers curved around the cup. The fingers were wider but almost flattened, the nails curved and pointed at the ends, the thumbnail extending a full centimetre past the digit's end.

"I channelled the fox's chakra." His voice sounded hoarse that low, and then he justified himself to his mother (not looking at his dad, which was a good thing, because Shikaku couldn't meet those red eyes) - in a rush, he shouted the words "Gaara would have killed dad!"

"Are you, going to stay looking like that?" Yoshino was hesitant, nervous, but not condemning.

"I don't know." Shikamaru hoped not.

Yoshino understood the fear backing that statement, and got up and smoothed her son's hair back. His face was more angular, or perhaps it was just because the whisker-marks followed the curve of his cheekbones, emphasising them. His eyes were startling like this, but beautiful close-up, fibrils of flame-orange through crimson to maroon giving the irises a depth and elegance that was not immediately apparent. Yoshino stroked a thumb down his cheeks, feeling that the whiskers now had texture, like scars, where they had previously been just a change in pigmentation.

"You look fine to me", she said. "Go to bed, we'll see how you are in the morning."

That was what she'd said to him when he was ill, and hearing it them reassured him illogically but immensely.

Shikamaru lay peacefully, the senses heightened by demonic chakra receding to normality as his tired limbs pressed into his mattress. Tired, he found it easy to lie still, and his heartbeat left the focus of his mind as he fell out of instinctive awareness into sleep.

* * *

Shikaku rested his chin on interlinked hands, pensive. 

"Doesn't it scare you to see him look like that?" He asked his wife.

"Not, I think, as much as it scares him to see us react to him like you are." Her voice was cutting, but not acidic as it could have been. She knew why Shikaku was behaving like he was, and that he didn't want to hurt his son. He was hurting him, though.

Shikaku slid one hand up over his face, in a vaguely tragical gesture. He stayed like that for a second or two, then leant back in his chair, making a small but emphatic exhalation, disgust written on his face.

"You're right, of course."

"But of course." She responded unnecessarily.

He grimaced, poured more tea for both of them.

She read his moods easily, and grinned without real humour, "You know I am, when it comes to our son."

He nodded, then sighed, exhausted by the long day.

They sat there quietly for a long time together. Rumiko hadn't come back yet, and she didn't that night. Yoshino stood outside Shikamaru's door, listening to his even breathing, before heading to join her husband in bed.

* * *

In bed, Shikamaru dreamed of fire and a forest sunk in red chakra, and a fox's face. But the dreams would be forgotten before he woke. 


	30. Before the Storm

Shikamaru woke slowly up, then remembered the events of last night and rolled over, wishing he had had the common sense to stay inside and hide. He crushed his face against his pillow, fancying he could feel whisker-marks across his cheeks, hot with a flush of chakra that was trying to brand him as its own. He was sure that the lines pressed more strongly than the rest of his face into his pillow, almost believing they would leave impressions on the fabric; they'd be the colour of dried blood.

He made himself keep his eyes shut, trying to convince his body to doze off again. Like he'd used to when he had nothing to worry about, but now? Today was the last day before the Chuunin exam. Maybe it'd come, and go, and Gaara would go too. And maybe his worries about the Kyuubi would vanish too.

_Che, yeah right._ He'd deluded himself enough. Hadn't last night shown that _jinchuuriki_ wasn't nearly as meaningless a designation as he'd claimed?

After a restless period of forced stillness, he ran his thumb along his fingernails; it wasn't cut by points. He sighed in relief, nestled deeper into the covers.

* * *

Rumiko returned home, having spent a fretful evening in a hotel. She'd slept on Imn's balcony, chaste and concerned and torn between the different personalities she'd adopted: girlfriend; mature and responsible guide; girl, conflicted in her sexuality. She'd made a decision, she'd introduce Imn to her parents and trust in their ability to be understanding. 

And so, the two of them walked together towards the Nara household, hand in hand. Imn was cheerful (artificially, though it didn't show; she was putting it on for Rumiko's sake), commenting on Konoha and lightly observing life for her partner's benefit, interested in the ninja culture. It gave the Nara girl a distraction, and put her in a role she was comfortable with: tour guide.

Walking up to the front door of the house, Imn reached down, and picked a throwing knife from the ground, inquiring.

Rumiko frowned.

"Huh. Dad wouldn't leave anything out overnight, he's anal about taking proper care of stuff... And Shikamaru wouldn't practise and definitely wouldn't do it here." She made herself focus, drawing on old tracking skills.

Up close, she noticed Grass dead in patterns, some of it scorched. Layers of dew showed people had run around in the night, run and jumped. Something was wrong.

She walked to Shikamaru's window, rapped on it. She didn't want to disturb her parents if something was wrong, not when it would seem rude after her disappearance. What had happened, why when she was away?

Shikamaru shifted, opened the window and stuck his sleepy face out of the window. Rumiko beckoned to him, and he rolled out of the window for the second time since midnight.

It was only outside he remembered his concerns about his appearance – he raised a hand to his cheek without thinking, blinking sleepily in the cold air. A woman giggled; not Rumiko. He focussed – it was the girlfriend. A traditionally beautiful dark-haired and pale-skinned face, long eyelashes and modest features, but with skin burnt by exposure to the sun and hair badly cut short in a gesture of rebellion. Imn, the name was.

"What happened here?" Rumiko asked, at the same time as Shikamaru spoke.

"Do I look normal?" Urgent.

"Normal?" Rumiko peered at him, Imn looking confused.

"Yes." Shikamaru didn't want to expand on it with The Girlfriend (as he mentally labelled her) there, but he tapped his whisker-marks.

"You look just like you always do. But your hair's a mess." She reached over and flicked it over his face, causing him to duck away. Shikamaru worried for a moment, but his naturally work-avoiding personality decided that if she hadn't noticed anything he must look fine and he didn't need to stress.

"_So_, what happened here?" She impatiently indicated the area of the tree Gaara had hid behind.

"In brief? Gaara decided to visit us, but dad and I chased him away."

Both females looked shocked, but he told Rumiko he'd tell her more later, and she gathered tactfully that he wasn't going to discuss the incident in front of a stranger. She and Imn had their own issues to settle, so as Rumiko asked if he didn't have missions and the couple headed inside. Shikamaru jumped back through his window, realising he was late for Team Ten business.

* * *

Quickly dressed, (and having reassured himself of his human appearance), he headed to outside Ino's shop. This was their customary meeting point, and both other members of Team Ten were awaiting him. 

"You're late" Ino said, but it wasn't really anger colouring her tone. She handed him a folder containing various mission descriptions (the Hokage and his advisers were far too busy to brief such humble genin), and pointed out the one she wanted them to do.

"We're all going to watch the exams tomorrow, right? So we need to make an effort today. That delivery will take us till lunch, and if we do that courier assignment as well and then put some time into training when we get back we can take tomorrow off with clear consciences."

Shikamaru nodded. The undertone in Ino's voice was uncertainty, and he could tell it was because she didn't know what to do about him. She must be trying very hard to do as he'd asked her if she still hadn't made inquiries into what jinchuuriki meant, and he knew he hadn't because she could never hide signs of guilt. Huh, just because he'd asked her not to. He hadn't really expected Ino to worry about that – he'd thought she'd either not care and forget about it or ignore his pleas.

As they moved along the tree-route in a rhythm they'd perfected in recent missions, Shikamaru resolved to tell Ino about the Kyuubi.

* * *

After an hour of travel, they left the thick canopy of the forest. For all three, this was the point where they felt they'd truly left Konoha – the open, rolling countryside and cultivated land was alien to the inhabitants of a dense wood-encircled village. Shikamaru subconsciously felt that he was outside his village's judgement in this open land, and he chose now to tell Ino. 

"Ino"

He caught her attention, so she stopped and waited to close the distance between them. They traversed this type of land more slowly than they did the woods, but they'd formed idiosyncratic habits in this kind of terrain. Shikamaru liked walking, but enjoyed the countryside more if he felt alone in it. He would rarely join in conversations while he was walking, and if Ino and Chouji conversed close to him he tended to make sarcastic remarks at them. So Chouji would preserve calm during the long journeys by staying quiet, or would distance himself to eat. Ino would stride ahead, initially in fits of suppressed pique at her companions' behaviour but later because she liked the sight of the wide empty vistas ahead of her. Walks like this had become pleasant and relaxing to the three, now the pattern was established and habits formed. It surprised Ino that Shikamaru was behaving differently. It wasn't like him to feel guilty about being late, though he had changed so much recently it was hard to tell.

Ino made a questioning sound as she started walking again at Shikamaru's pace. Chouji had hurried and caught up.

"Do you still want to know what _jinchuuriki_ means?" Shikamaru asked, waiting for her response with arms crossed.

"If you want to tell me, go ahead."

Ino was, in fact, curious. She'd always believed that there was a lot more to Shikamaru than anyone acknowledged – people mentioned the youngest Nara child in undertones, and Shikamaru constantly exerted effort to make himself seem mediocre. If he was going to talk to her as if she was a real team-mate and someone to be trusted with secrets, she was not saying no. (But on the other hand Shikamaru had started talking because he wanted to tell her, so she saw no reason to ask. And she was just a little annoyed with him for being distant, rude and late after a period of good behaviour, and for turning up late.)

"It means 'human empowered by sacrifice', or something akin to that." Shikamaru's voice was determinedly level. He used words like 'akin' when he was stressed; letting the well-educated side of him slip out instead of matching his vocabulary to the other students'.

Ino looked at him. That had ... really not been what she'd been expecting to hear. _Temari called you that? I guess... there was a real reason for you to freak out after all. And Naruto was telling the truth about whatever it was that happened with Gaara in the hospital. _

Shikamaru had his arms crossed and wasn't looking at her. Ino was not pleased by this. _Urgh, expand on things, you lazy bastard. The rest of us can't extrapolate everything we want to know from one sentence. _

"Why?" She asked. Okay, it wasn't the best choice of question word, but hey.

"Because." He frowned slightly, obviously forcing himself to continue "When the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha, it wasn't killed. It was sealed inside me by the Fourth Hokage."

He paused, relaxed his fingers from they clenched around his upper arms. Ino realised that there were white marks there where he'd gripped the flesh too tight. He was... genuinely distressed.

She impulsively hugged him, murmuring 'poor Shikamaru'. He tensed, then laughed quietly, ironically.

Ino stepped back, half-wanting to sit down to get him to talk more, but knowing from experience that people felt less intimidated when they could focus on something over than the person they were speaking with. It was odd to her that Shikamaru could be intimidated by people their age – by her, no less - when even adults like academy teachers couldn't convince him to bend to their will.

"That's why people are all awkward with you?"

"Awkward? Hate me, more like." Shikamaru was vaguely aware that this response was rude, but there was something in that choice of words. How much had Ino realised about how people treated him? He'd always assumed it was more apparent to him than to others, and only after finding out what lay behind their treatment of him had he wondered what their emotions towards him were. He hadn't liked deciding that they were scared, and hadn't accepted it even now.

"I don't know." Ino said, voice small as she processed what he'd said earlier.

_Don't know? _Thought Shikamaru, _you don't think they hate me? And you don't want to say what you do think? ...How good a judge of character are you, Ino?_

"I won't hate you. Anyone else? They're stupid if they do. Though I'm sure you know that already, being cleverer than me." She laughed, only a little awkwardly.

"Yeah, I know. But I understand why they act like they do."

Chouji frowned on the other side of him, and murmured something vaguely reproachful. Ino's reaction was more vehement.

"What's to understand, Shikamaru?! Unless you're going to turn around and kill us all and burn Konoha down, they're got no right to act like they do!"

It was funny, thought Shikamaru, that she kept mostly quiet until she knew _why_ the various anti-Shikamaru people acted like they did, but when told she became vocal in his defence.

"I mean it, Shikamaru. Just because you're a lazy bastard doesn't mean you can act like you're happy with being... discriminated against! That's a stupid reason to - !" She couldn't think of the words she was looking for, and flung her arms out at her sides.

"It's too troublesome." He spoke lightly.

Ino laughed in surprise, and just because_ of course _Shikamaru would say that, and Chouji took his packet of crisps back out from his pocket where he'd stowed it to listen to the conversation. The renewed sound of crunching calmed the trio because it was so familiar, so expected, that it showed them this discussion hadn't changed anything.

"So Chouji knew that already?" Ino asked, not having considered the implications of Chouji listening to this discussion before. But _of course_ Shikamaru had confided in his best friend. That was only natural. She regretted her recent distance from Sakura whenever she saw a sign of the closeness between the two boys, and this was no different.

"I told him after Gaara attacked me in the hospital."

"That was three weeks ago" Ino said, mostly to herself. "So what exactly happened then; Naruto isn't the most reliable of witnesses, as such."

So Shikamaru recounted the event, then told both his listeners about the events of the previous night. They discussed that, and lighter matters, with more interest and honesty than there had been between them for years. Team Ten was so involved in conversation that they missed the village and had to double back to find the bridleway leading there, and the day of missions passed quickly, and ended with all three interested in the Chuunin exam and betting on the outcome.

* * *

_Missing Scene: _

* * *

"Did you really think we'd be freaked out because you were possessed, slacker?" 

"I'm not _possessed_, Ino."

"So you're - what, cohabiting?"


	31. Move Along

The next day was the Chuunin exams, and Shikamaru found that despite all the month's worries, he was excited about the matches as he and Rumiko walked into town. He hadn't told her about the details of the Gaara incident – she'd asked their dad and been given some curt non-response. But Shikamaru had brushed her off as well – she hadn't asked until they'd set out for the arena, and he was not going to talk about such things in public. He had the feeling his sister hadn't wanted to ask when their dad was near; particularly since the man had been alternately snappish and silent with his children at meal-times. Thankfully, he and Yoshino wouldn't leave for the exam for another half-hour – Shikamaru and Rumiko had left earlier since both had people to see before the fights started.

Rumiko departed as soon as they reached the arena, heading off to sort out the seat reservations for her group of dignitaries and assorted gentry. Her brother looked around, catching sight of Chouji, waiting at a kiosk to buy food and – his eyes widened - Ino standing in an aggressive posture saying something to Sabaku no Temari. _Shit!_

* * *

Ino had decided when she spotted the Sand kunoichi that there were words to be had. So she'd waited until Chouji excused himself and then strode towards the woman, her mind made up: to warn the other girl off Shikamaru. He was her team-mate, and the memory of that Temari staring into his eyes and – hurting his feelings, dammit, by making him out to be some kind of possessed creepy fox-guy – was not something that Yamanaka Ino would stand for.

So she had her hands on her hips and her mascara'd eyes narrowed as she faced the other, much plainer, blonde.

"Excuse me?" Temari asked as she and that foul puppeteer watched Ino. (Gaara was staring at the crowd, boredom apparent in his features. Thank the kami for that mercy.)

"_Ex_-cuse _me,_" Ino said, invading Temari's personal space. Ah, she hadn't been so bitchy to anyone in ages. She'd missed it. But no, this meeting had a purpose. "In the spirit of civility, I'm giving you a polite warning. Stay the fuck away from Shikamaru." Her voice was quiet and icy, with the hauteur only popular girls with complete confidence in their social skills can achieve.

"Because you-" (pause, because Ino knows just how to issue ultimatums to her fellow females, and dramatic silences are key) "- Have got your own cute but apathetic demon-kid boy. So all three of you can just leave Team Ten and Shikamaru a-_lone_."

Kankuro stared at the reasonably hot but clearly thick-as-hell girl in sheer amazement. He wanted to laugh, but if he did that Temari would hate him forever. Gaara had turned his head a fraction towards them, and was listening.

And Temari just grabbed Ino by her well-groomed blonde locks and pulled her even closer to her face. (Kankuro would have been so amused if Ino had retaliated by kissing her, but that was just him being perverted. _Hey, it would make a great surprise attack_, the rationale centre of his brain claimed, aggrieved.)

"You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about." Temari ground out, lethal fury in her voice. And -

-Stopped, as a thin line of shadow suddenly tied her to Shikamaru, whose hand was outstretched. He opened his hands, and Ino dashed backwards away from her captor as the bead of Shikamaru's shadow trap snapped back to him and the momentary bind broke.

She glanced round, and saw Kankuro was holding shuriken, grim-faced, and Gaara's sand was creeping out of its gourd. The milling crowd outside the stadium was now entirely focussed on the five ninja preparing for a fight, and two-thirds of Team Ten was now less than pleased with the situation.

But Asuma materialised, grabbed his wayward students, and dashed off. Kankuro held a hand ineffectually in front of Gaara, and Temari turned to try and convince him not to kill anyone.

* * *

Asuma hurried them to the seating of the stadium, keeping a hand on their shoulders. Chouji met them, and asked Ino what she'd been doing. Ino looked down at her seat. The room was almost entirely empty, as the chuunin hopefuls were in the arena being briefed, and their friends were still well-wishing them. A few clusters of anonymous ninja were standing along the walls, but the three genin were the only ones seated, and they had taken places at the front. Asuma was standing behind them, and Ino didn't want to see him or explain to Shikamaru why she'd been talking to Temari. If only someone else was here, it'd be a great excuse to avoid the whole damn subject!

There was an expectant silence.

"Fine!" Cried Ino when it became too much, and continued in an under-tone, "I told Temari to leave you alone, Shikamaru."

Chouji choked, the sound suspiciously laughter-like.

"Why?" Asuma said.

"Because she was being all... intimidating!" Ino replied, flustered.

"Well that worked great." Shikamaru said, sarcastic. But Ino kind of... drooped... and he felt guilty.

"It's fine." He attempted to assure her "Those three will be troublesome any way"

Asuma blew smoke over their heads, and it seemed like he would have interrogated them, but Naruto chose then to run in. He immediately noticed the group, and dashed over to demand that they cheer for him. His tone was serious, though he was practically vibrating in anticipation of the event. Ino pretended thoughtfulness, while Chouji nodded gravely.

"It's a hassle to have to raise my voice, but I'll make the effort for you" Shikamaru said (as seriously as he could when he was so amused by the fact the Yondaime's son was acting like a seven-year-old)

"You'd better!" Naruto replied, scowling.

"Seriously, good luck." Shikamaru said. He genuinely wanted Naruto to win. His friend was talented and good-natured, and he shared Shikamaru's dislike of Neji; if anything, he had better reasons for disliking the older genin. And if Naruto were to get promoted, he'd know it was because he'd earned it, and he'd become more mature and self-confident, (which the less-than-principled part of Shikamaru's brain would welcome because it'd show him he didn't need to be hyperactive and attention-seeking). Well, whatever the reasons, he was giving his support to Kazama Naruto.

As the blond took a running leap down to the field, where the other candidates were already in a neat line, Sakura came up through the stairway. She shook her head at the doppler-effect yell that followed Naruto's progress downwards, and took a seat beside Ino, fretting about Sasuke's continued absence. Shikamaru sat between Chouji and Ino, silent. He was in a foul mood now, despite the odd cheering effect Naruto had on him, because he was certain that Gaara would attack him before the day's end. The room was steadily filling up with ninja, all of whom were babbling about the battles in a frenzy, as if everything would be over before they finished speaking unless they rushed, as if there was something momentous and fleeting happening. It was a show, logged down by incessant and worthless showmanship, and it hardly mattered to the shadow-user when Gaara would kill him before it ended and the Sound and Sand would kill everyone else.

Ugh, okay, he didn't really think that, but – it was so pathetic, how everyone was animated and gossipy and ruining a nice, cloud-strewn day with their frenetic chatter. They should calm down and stop giving him a head-ache.

Eventually, as the slow seconds dragged more and more on his nerves, he decided the assembled candidates were more interesting than Sakura's wittering about her crush. Seriously, if he'd said 'Sasuke died last Wednesday' the pink-haired girl would faint. _Women_, he ground out under his breath.

* * *

Leaning over the edge of the wall, and feeling a little better for the cool breeze, Shikamaru registered who he was seeing in that line for the first time. He was struck by Dosu's complete absence. With neither Sasuke nor the Sound-Nin present, the exam didn't seem to be off to a good start. Where could he have been? He pondered it, and ended up, he thinking back to seeing Gaara in the hospital room, intent on killing Zaku. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the gourd-carrying genin looked straight at him, and Shikamaru's blood froze at the killing intent in the cold eyes. Shikamaru looked to the side, not bothered by seeming submissive. Perhaps it was coincidence that Dosu had vanished, but if Gaara had gone after Zaku again and Dosu had intervened, the demon-host would probably not have hesitated to kill both.

Still, it boded ill for his suspicions about an alliance between the two hidden villages. But it didn't rule out the existence of such a thing - Gaara would doubtless not ask for permission or abide by laws when it came to killing. Neither, he was sure, would attack on their own. And while the Kazekage was sitting beside the Hokage, there was no Sound leader present. Were they working in unity? It wouldn't make sense for the leader to be from Sand country when Sand had so many fewer guests, ninja or otherwise, but nor would it make sense for the Kazekage to let his genin – his children! Shikamaru realised with a shock – obey another ruler in the presence of himself. It just didn't work.

But, he thought, as the competitors split up and began to leave the floor, no. He was here to see this foolish show to its end, and there was no real point worrying about Gaara or intangible conspiracies. If the crazed _jinchuuriki _had behaved himself up till now, and not slaughtered Ino for whatever she'd said, he would probably (hopefully) stay calm for the duration. So Shikamaru made himself go back and listen to a debate about likely winners, and gradually the discomfort he felt about the threatening Suna-nin faded. Whatever happened would happen, and didn't know enough to speculate on it.

* * *

Up next - Lee versus Kankuro! 


	32. There Is No Other Day

The first fight was Rock Lee versus Kankuro, as it turned out. As the other competitors came back up the stairs, Team Ten developed a lot more collective support for the eccentric boy, remembering the puppet-master's attack on Chouji. Ino asked if Sakura knew 'the eyebrow-freak', as she delicately put it.

"Urgh, I know him. A little too well, I have to say."

"Oh?" Ino asked, face lighting up with a slightly evil glint in her eyes.

"He's-" she shuddered "-obsessive! I saw him at the very start of the exams, he took one look at me and... it's horrible. The hearts... floating..." She degenerated into twitching.

Ino snorted inelegantly. It was a bad habit of hers. Sakura collected herself with admirable speed.

"Still, he's a nice guy. And strong, and he really helped us out in the Forest. So I" she folded her hands in her lap and tried to look mature and forgiving "Will try to look past his oddities"

"Does that mean you're giving up on my Sasuke?"

(Shikamaru's attention had been drawn by the Sand Siblings, who leisurely seated themselves at the other end of the front row seats. Gaara looked straight at him, cyan eyes making the Leaf-nin shudder.)

"Um, No_-o_O" The strange noise masquerading as a word drew his attention back to the feminine banter. Sakura had the same talent as Ino for giving monosyllabic words multiple syllables. Was it a girl thing? "Ino-pig, you should know by not that the day _that _happens is the day I gouge out my own eyeballs with a spoon."

"Go right ahead, Lady of the Forehead. Maybe you could grind your eyes to a pulp with that thick solid piece of bone right there!" She rapped the pink-haired girl on her forehead.

Was it really that big? Shikamaru couldn't see the supposed size difference. His eyebrows folded in confusion as Sakura slapped Ino's hand away and stood up, obviously in preparation for a full-on cat-fight.

But in the arena, the real fight was just starting. He put his arm around Ino's waist, keeping her in her seat, and told Sakura pointedly that she was disturbing the people behind them.

* * *

Chouji hadn't really acknowledged the two fighting girls, instead keeping his attention on Kankuro. The puppeteer didn't scare him. (Even though during his stay in hospital he'd been haunted by the memory of helplessness and nausea, the half-conscious awareness of pain, and... no. It was over now, the horror had receded and been accepted and forgotten and become tolerable.) Now, he - Well, he hated the man, to be honest. His arrogant, sneering face, his coldness, the unrepentant look he'd given his victim as he walked past Team Ten on the way to the exams. He didn't remind Chouji of the bullies of his past, but he did remind him of all that the Akimichi hated about the ninja profession. 

But his attention was drawn back to the stands when Shikamaru spoke. His friend was forcibly holding Ino down and away from Sakura. No way would Shikamaru have done that before this month, hell, before this week. And Ino didn't struggle, she just relaxed from her attempt to rise and removed Shikamaru's arm with one hand. (Admittedly she shifted the limb with distaste, but she made not a single comment about perversity, and this when physical contact was involved). Sakura sat down too, looking vaguely embarrassed as she realised how many eyes were on them.

Shikamaru had changed a lot recently, dropping many of the traits that made people hostile to him: he'd kept his lazy drawl, but removed from his stock dialogue his disparaging comments about women, stopped being so unwilling to participate in conversation, reduced his insouciant or scathing replies when asked to work. And... the Kyuubi. Shikamaru had told him and Ino _why_ he tended to act like he did, he'd confided something important to them. That was - more than anything else - a measure of his intention to be a part of the team.

The Kyuubi. What did Chouji think about that? He didn't really know – his initial reaction to the revelation had just been confusion. This had prompted Shikamaru to enter his teaching mode and tell him about_ fuuinjutsu_ and its main uses, and then talk about the fact the older generation of Konoha was innately prejudiced against him because of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha and the chaos that had caused. He'd been talking dispassionately about the fact they resented him, and he'd continued talking until Chouji told him to 'shut up, because it's not fair that you act like that!'._ It wasn't fair,_ he thought, _Shikamaru hadn't done anything wrong._ And he'd thought: Shikamaru must have been hurt by people acting like that towards him. He remembered one day when their academy teacher had thrown a kunai and it had slammed into the wall beside a sleeping Shikamaru, another time when the teacher had told him to stay in his seat until he'd completed his work. Shikamaru had refused to do so, and the teacher had screamed at him until he started crying, and continued the lesson ignoring the humiliated boy. It's one thing for your peers to be hostile, it's something everyone goes through at one stage or another, surely. But it's completely another matter for adults, whom kids respect and depend on, to consistently intimidate someone. _It's just not fair, how can Shikamaru accept it? _He's grown up now, the damage is done (and he seems remarkably undamaged, really,) but..._ it's not fair._

* * *

"Begin!" 

On the ground, Rock Lee nodded, face determined, and charged at Kankuro. The puppet-master unwrapped the Karasu puppet, moving as fast as he could, but Lee kicked and caught the tips of Kankuro's fingers as the Sand-nin outstretched them to activate his chakra-strings. The cat-eared combatant fell back, swearing, even as Lee retreated and circled around him.

It was a good match-up for Rock Lee, thought Shikamaru, because the spandex-wearing genin had an advantage against someone who attacked physically and who was limited by his speed. Kankuro had to manipulate the puppet, which took attention and was determined by reaction times, while Lee's greatest asset was his ability to strike fast. The puppet just meant he had two targets.

But Shikamaru judged too fast – Kankuro changed pose and brought the puppet to bear against Lee. He... must have predicted the taijutsu expert's moves, because the puppet moved far slower than Lee but still got into place in time. _A risky gamble to make, but a clever one_. A small compartment in the puppet opened (Kankuro's hands were visibly shaking, but he was used to pain and could bear it enough to stay precise and effective in combat; he had to) and as Lee moved into range, an unhealthy looking green cloud surrounded him. Naruto, who'd come to join the spectators, shouted "Fuzzy-brows!!" in concern. Temari snickered in the stands, proud of her brother and the shock his attack had caused amongst the Leaf shinobi.

Lee staggered back, and gave a wobbly thumbs-up as he heard voices calling him in concern. His eyes narrowed and brows lowered in determination.

Then he charged around Kankuro, banking and circling until his movements became too fast to follow. A cloud of dust kicked up around the puppet, then the trail behind the Lee-shaped blur moved on and on and – towards Kankuro. The puppet-master fell back, but a second puppet was revealed. Lee stopped moving in confusion, but Shikamaru yelled "on it's back!", and the speed expert raced in circles around the puppet-replacement and the bundle it bore.

"That moron" Temari said. Which moron was not obvious, but Gaara sneered disdainfully as well. Funny, Shikamaru had hardly noticed them. He felt less like... prey... now Gaara was distracted by the fighting.

Then Lee grabbed the bandages between the puppet and its controller, and started swinging them around. Faster and faster, until the two unravelled. Then Lee leapt up, spinning like a wind-up ballerina, the two bundles behind him rotating at a slower speed. Then he let go, bent in mid-air, and fiddled with something on his legs as he reached the apex of his jump. And down he flung his weights.

One crashed into the spinning puppet, the other struck the Suna-nin who had half-removed himself from the bandages, but who was entangled because of the hampering effect of momentum. Both were knocked back – so fast – and the tape that had linked the two hitherto tore.

Temari swore, but not sympathetically. Shikamaru noticed it: she was concerned about her brother's safety? Or did his health affect some other ambition?

Two enormous craters were created, throwing dust up and cracked stone down, and a puppet smashed beyond recognition fell out of one, and a battered figure entangled in white dropped limply out of the other. Rock Lee landed on his feet, then trembled and fell to his knees, coughing up a green-ish fluid stained with blood.

He raised his head, and gave the spectators a sparkling smile before falling. Gai caught him, and lifted him like a baby, carrying him to the waiting medics.

* * *

So, Kankuro is K.O.'d. Lee will be back, and next chapter is straight on to Naruto's fight against Neji. Reviews will be treasured, forever and ever. (or is that the song I'm listening to?). No, really, please do review. Or I'll panic and rewrite all my fight-scenes. Fight-scenes are scary things in this fandom.  



	33. A Duel Between The Children Of Great Men

Naruto got so carried away applauding Lee that he didn't realise it was his fight next until the arbitrator (where was the sickly Hayate? Shikamaru belatedly wondered,) announced he was to fight Hyuuga Neji. At this, Naruto bounded to the wall of the stadium and gave them all a thumbs-up, grinning so broadly his eyes shut. As he glanced behind him to where Neji was walking out, his cheerful and familiar expression changed; his eyes opened and he gazed at the Hyuuga with such angry resolve that Shikamaru felt chilled. His friend's blue eyes looked older and scarier when their intense focus was on retribution.

"I'll beat him for you, Hinata-chan." He spoke quietly, angrily.

"Good luck, moron." Ino said, grinning at him. She, too, was uncomfortable. Her tactic worked – he gave her a comically indignant look.

"Good luck, Naruto" Sakura said, kicking Ino's ankle. Ino pinched Sakura, but Chouji cleared his throat and told Naruto to do his best.

Shikamaru mock-saluted Naruto, now smiling at the way the blond was swelling with pride and determination as his peers wished him luck.

Naruto nodded seriously at all of them, then turned and leapt onto the wall and flung himself off it with a cry of 'banzaaaaaai!'. He landed a foot away from Neji, and from even from the spectators' distant view the way the Hyuuga wrinkled his nose in distaste was clearly visible.

The Genin were all attentive as the start of the fight was called, and Naruto charged.

The two exchanged neatly dodged blows in taijutsu for a few brief but intense seconds, Neji effortlessly repelling Naruto's attacks but being evaded and countered (with less poise, but more skill than any other genin except Lee or Sasuke with the sharingan). Shikamaru was confident Naruto knew what he was doing, even though it was risky to get so near a _jyuuken_ user. As the blond backed away and made a few hand-seals, Shikamaru confirmed that he'd been testing the Hyuuga's reaction time. _Watch out, Naruto, he may well have been tricking you_, the lazy ninja thought.

The two moved together again, reactions matching perfectly so none of the spectators could tell who had initiated the attack. But as Naruto got near to the Hyuuga, his orange-clad form vanished from sight! Neji spun around, hair arcing behind him, and there was a moment of complete silence as the audience wondered if his byakugan-enhanced vision could perceive the Yondaime's son. Apparently, it could, for there followed a series of invisible clashes and blocks by Neji that had no perceptible target. Naruto's rapid attacks looked like Lee's high-powered taijutsu strikes, but Neji could keep up and did.

"When did Naruto get so fast?" Ino asked the blond's team-mate. Sakura shook her head.

"I'm not sure. I suppose this is what Jiraiya-sama taught him"

"But that kind of increase would take more than a month, Miss Ignorant Forehead" Ino retorted, not quite having forgiven Sakura.

"It's a jutsu, not a natural increase" Shikamaru said, not noticing his own disloyalty to his team-mate in his interest in Naruto's new skill.

"Oh!" Sakura said, "He must be using the Shunshin no Jutsu."

Technically, the Shunshin – or body-flicker - skill was something every ninja knew, since every shinobi able to use chakra at all used it subconsciously to help themselves move faster. They used it to jump high through the trees, and to leap off towards a destination in an impressively purposeful manner once they'd been dismissed from briefings. (In each instance, the augmentation of muscles with chakra supplied them with energy and rendered the metabolism of polysaccharides and production of ATP through respiration less pressing, thus allowing the ninja to exceed normal physical limitations. Shikamaru was smart enough that he'd understood this the very first time he'd read it, and had explained it to Ino, who hadn't understood it even the fifth and sixth times she'd read it, as chakra takes the place of food in giving you energy to move.)

Ino had wondered why ninja didn't just use chakra like that constantly and not bother eating. Shikamaru wondered why they needed to train (which led to the muscles' cells making more mitochrondria to prepare more chemical energy to move faster) when they could just use chakra. The answer, and the reason Naruto using that move like this was surprising, was that it was very, very difficult to consciously use the body-flicker technique. When smug jounin used it to appear behind their easily-intimidated students, they were showing off a long practised move that was 'perfected' by years of tree-hopping and dashing drumming the action into the body's memory. Naruto had _not_ had time to practise that.

But how he'd learnt it was – as Chouji nudged him back to reality and the fight at hand – not nearly as interesting as what he was doing with it. His attacks had become so unpredictable and furious that Neji had begun using _kaiten, _the spinning absolute defence. Naruto had backed off, throwing various projectiles and watching them glance off the shield, then running parallel to it and turning and throwing weapons as he pivoted sharply. One had landed smack in the middle of the indentation left in the wall by Kankuro, and impaled the place where the Sand boy's head had struck. After a while, Naruto stopped and crouched on his haunches, turning his hand in the dirt with his thumb in the middle as a pivot and forefinger carving a circle round the edge, face scrunched up in thought.

Then the blond stood up, and made a hand-seal. And begun his race around the edge of the defence, speeding up until he began to match the speed of the rotation.

He was getting faster and faster as he dashed round the circumference, building up momentum for a few long and very tense seconds. Watching avidly, Shikamaru realised what his plan was, and he grinned in amazement at the ingenuity.

"What, are you happy that idiot's wasting all his energy down there?" Sakura said acidly.

"He must have got the idea from Lee when he fought Kankuro" said Shikamaru to himself.

"Why? What's he doing?" Chouji asked. Chouji knew the best way to find things out from a distracted Shikamaru, and that was to ask him exactly what was causing the distraction. It had to be something worth hearing, if it was interesting enough to be able to catch the attention of someone so naturally apathetic.

"He's going to speed up until his momentum matches that of the sphere around Neji. Then when he's balancing against it he -"

On the ground, Naruto's blurred figure vanished entirely, though the pale sphere around Neji seemed more orange and its entire surface slowly began to glow light blue, getting darker.

Then there was an almighty crash, like the sound of thunder, and two figures spun in opposite directions through the air of the arena.

Almost all of the audience stood up, craning to see what had happened.

A man-sized hole was ripped clear through the stadium wall.

"He realised that the _kaiten_ makes chakra orbit its user, like a moon around a planet. Gravity makes things follow a pattern and keeps them together, but the _kaiten_ – how do you explain it? - is specialised so only things moving at that speed can fit into it. And-" he copied the motion Naruto had made, rotating his forefinger around his thumb "-something on the outside of a field like that has to move faster than something on the inside. Which is why people assume nothing can get past the defence -to do so it needs to be moving very fast at an exactly correct angle. If it_ is_ doing that, it's drawn into the field. And in that situation, Naruto put as much chakra as he could into the _kaiten_."

"Why? Wouldn't that strengthen Neji's defence?" Ino asked.

"No, it meant that when Naruto turned, all the chakra he had contributed to the _kaiten_ field moved with him, catapulting Neji away."

"Huh, since when was Naruto smart enough to figure stuff like that out?" Asked Sakura.

Shikamaru shook his head at this lack of faith.

"He is called Konoha's most surprising ninja. While he was throwing things at the _kaiten_ he was analysing its properties, and he used Lee's fight as inspiration – Lee kept Kankuro helpless by spinning him, and then knocked him out by suddenly changing the direction of his spin but keeping that momentum by changing the axis the _kaiten_ centred around. It's not so much intelligence as a stroke of creative genius."

"Naruto's a genius?" Ino sounded skeptical. She was certain that the orange-wearing brat wouldn't know what Shikamaru was talking about if he heard that explanation.

"He found a flaw in a supposedly impenetrable defence. A Hyuuga defence, no less. Admittedly, it's not much of a flaw – it relies on the assailant using more chakra than the defender, and if Neji had been on guard he could have blocked him – but-" He shrugged "-how many people could use Neji's defence against him? Effectively, too." he pointed at the holes in the wall. All the genin looked down, except Temari, who had mysteriously vanished. Gaara was standing alone, looking down at the arena in distaste.

Shikamaru looked away from the other genin before that attention could be turned to him. Um, Neji. And Naruto. He looked at them, trying to not speculate over Gaara.

Neji had collided with the wall and managed to make a hole all the way through it, and flying through three rows of seats before coming to a halt in the lap of a regal but very fat woman, whose cat had promptly attacked his unconscious form. Two medics were trying to detach the feline from the Hyuuga's long hair, which had come loose at some point during his impromptu flight.

Naruto hadn't been knocked out by his own brief flight, and he stood up, blood soaking a few peaks of hair and eyes a little unfocussed from the impact, but grinning like a madman nonetheless.

"Winner," The faintly surprised judge announced, as Neji's unconscious form was respectfully lifted onto a stretcher and carried to the medical bay: "Kazama Naruto!"

And the blond genin rose shakily from where he'd dropped after colliding with the wall, and slowly, but gaining speed until he was skipping with contagious joy, he raced from side to side of the stadium, laughing and leaping into the air and delighting the amazed crowd.

* * *

Dictionary

Jyuuken – gentle fist. The Hyuuga's specialist fighting style, it disables tenketsu.

Kaiten – the Hyuuga absolute defence. The user spins, extruding chakra so it forms a rapidly rotating sphere around them that repels anything from outside.

Tenketsu – Chakra pores, which are like chakra-related pressure points and outputs.

Sharingan – a doujutsu possessed by the Uchiha

Byakugan – a doujutsu possessed by the Hyuuga

Shunshin – Body Flicker Jutsu. Explained in-text.

Doujutsu – bloodline limit enhancing the eyes of its user.


	34. All the Right Enemies

Since both Kazama Naruto and Rock Lee were in less than perfect condition (the former having been slammed into a wall and thereby concussed, and the latter suffering from poison that could well have done permanent damage had they not administered the antidote in time), the exam moved on to the second bracket.

"And next up we have... Aburame Shino versus Kinuta Dosu!"

Shino got up from his seat behind Team Ten, and proceeded at an unhurried pace to the ground of the stadium. At the same time, a messenger moved to the proctor's side and murmured something. There was a quiet though emphatic debate and then the second figure hurried Shino back from the grounds. After a pause, and louder than previously over the crowd's agitation, the next match was announced bluntly.

"Sabaku no Temari versus Sabaku no Gaara!"

The crowd quieted, eagerly anticipating a match that involved Gaara.

Shikamaru glanced to where Gaara sat alone; the red-head didn't move or acknowledge the fight. Then a messenger came out from the medical room, and Shikamaru surmised that the kunochi was with the injured Kankuro. The messenger returned to the room, and sure enough Temari emerged from it following him, annoyed.

"I _said_, I resign." The kunochi managed to project her voice without raising it, and the frustration and suppressed fear carried to the audience.

The response was a soft murmur throughout the crowd; the spectators had gained a focussed attitude that had not been present during the initial matches. Shikamaru could guess why - the first bracket was decidedly less glamorous than the second. Naruto and Lee were the strongest ninja in it, and though the former was well-known as the son of a Kage, he lacked the air of sophistication that surrounded 'tragic' and 'distant' figures like Sasuke. Or like Gaara, though anyone with any sense would eye him with apprehension rather than wonder.

"Very well. Ladies and gentlemen, we present: Aburame Shino versus... Uchiha Sasuke!"

The audience applauded, but as only the Aburame took his place, the sound faded awkwardly, the last claps echoing. Shikamaru moved over to the ledge to survey the arena floor, and Chouji headed off to get more food, less concerned about the absences. The Kyuubi-host pretended not to notice Gaara's intense gaze as he watched the flurry of couriers and advisers that spoke to the proctor.

Shino stood unperturbed in the centre of the field, but the crowd called and called for the Uchiha survivor and heard no response. Dosu had been mysteriously absent, Gekkou Hayate had, and now Uchiha Sasuke. Could there be a pattern? Some relationship to the supposed invading party? Uchiha was... an Uchiha, which meant he would be seen as a threat, Hayate –key to the event's organisation - could plausibly have heard too much and been disposed of for that reason. But he was threatening in a very different way. And Dosu? Not a likely victim of assassination by the Sound.

Uchiha Sasuke. Not a logical choice for a single person to eliminate, unless he'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd been – ill, or something. Shikamaru tried not to listen to talk about him, something he was regretting now. But in Shikamaru's analysis, he was classed as someone who could potentially become very dangerous, rather than an immediate threat. There would be another reason if he had been disposed of.

Dosu? He still thought that the most likely fate for him was death at Gaara's hands. Unless he'd been spirited away to be a surprise attacker. But should that be the case, it would be unlikely that the Sound would just make him mysteriously vanish. He could be excused from the matches by any number of plausible reasons, why would they just keep him away without justifying it when the attack had every semblance of being a surprise strike?

Unless Sound were leaving the Sand to attack alone, but that was illogical. The Sand had bought very few dignitaries, true, and this meant they were free to cause collateral damage. But they had almost no shinobi accompanying the party, while the Sound had a large number. It was most likely to be a joint attack, or just one condoned by the Sand and launched principally by Sound forces. Was there dissent amongst the attackers? Was Sand's contribution to the attack seen as insufficient? Or... maybe... too likely to cause too much collateral damage, so Sound was getting out while they could. What form could such an attack take?

_Or maybe_, Shikamaru thought self-deprecatingly, _I'm just being paranoid._

He didn't have any evidence other than the circumstantial to suspect anything. If he had more justification, he'd mention it to Asuma, whose real-life strategical skills were better than the Go equivalent (the opposite was true for Shikamaru), and who would help him think through the possible scenarios Konoha was facing. But, paradoxically, _because_ Asuma knew more about the strategy of betrayal, Shikamaru was reluctant to take his own suspicions to him. If he went to Asuma in confidence, he'd have to explain more than he wanted to about Gaara and that whole mess.

* * *

After the delay had become awkward, the next match was announced: 

"Rock Lee versus... Kazama Naruto!"

A slightly surprised audience watched the two progress onto the field, but neither Naruto nor Lee looked too badly injured. Such was the determination of these two hard-working shinobi that to admit they were unable to fight was the same as surrendering to everything they spent their lives fighting, and so although they held no animosity towards each other, they would fight this battle with the intensity of two rivals in a deathmatch.

"I admire your spirit of youthfulness, but I must win this fight!"

"Sorry, Fuzzy-brows, but I told the Sasuke-bastard I'd fight him, and I'm going to keep that promise, dattebayo!"

"Hoo! I support your youthful determination! You are truly a worthy opponent, Naruto!"

"Thanks, Fuzzy-brows" Naruto grinned, putting aside his resolve to fight Sasuke as he realised that Lee was a 'worthy opponent', too. Shikamaru could practically see his brain slide into planning mode.

* * *

"Macho posturing..." Ino shook her head sadly. 

"It's okay when the ones doing it are macho enough, but..." Sakura sighed in agreement.

Shikamaru briefly pictured himself and Chouji acting out that scene, and was forced to agree with her.

* * *

After a few minutes more Youth-orientated talk from Lee (which Naruto was only barely participating in; some might say this was a natural response to that kind of weirdness, but Shikamaru could see his friend was scheming), the examiner started the match. 

Naruto had very little chakra left – he'd had virtually none when he'd left the arena after fighting Neji, but after an extremely hasty meal of instant ramen and a short rest, he had enough that he could use shunshin for thirty seconds or so, and perhaps pull off a couple of clones and the replacement techique as well. But he'd ruled out using offensive jutsu, because Lee was trained to fight people who used chakra without having any of his own, and once Naruto depleted his meagre reserves he'd be an easy target for a taijutsu master.

So, he'd constructed a cunning plan.

* * *

(I nearly ended the chapter here)

* * *

Naruto charged at Lee, striking with a crude taijutsu form and being effortlessly repelled. He persisted, and the two fought a horribly one-sided spar. 

Shikamaru was the only person in the audience genuinely surprised to see Naruto engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Did everyone else really think that little of the blond prankster? People seemed so set on denying that he was his father's son that they attributed him idiocy without the least justification.

But Naruto's movements had purpose, the whisker-marked genin saw. The blond was taking a beating in order to ... lure Lee to under the largest of the holes in the wall, where scattered rocks lay. The movements had to have been better concealed from Lee, who didn't have the advantage of an aerial view, and so when a roundhouse kick knocked Naruto back all the way to the far side of the stadium into the cracked wall, the bowl-cut genin didn't realise anything was wrong.

* * *

Naruto bit his lip to keep from grinning (it hurt, the flesh was already swollen from a punch) and slumped so he'd look unconscious, pulling an exploding tag out of his pocket and with one smooth motion retracting his hand to underneath his body. Damn, it hurt to keep himself in this position, but you have to suffer for the best pranks, so he affixed the seal-parchment to a kunai and activated the seal just as Lee moved to cautiously investigate the obviously-not-really-unconscious combatant. 

He threw the kunai with all his strength, praying that Lee would have learnt something like this and react reflexively.

And – yes, as the kunai got within arm's reach of Lee, the genin's hand snapped out, palm twisted so his thumb was furthest away from him and his fingers curled back towards his body, little finger nearest to him, and with his open palm parallel to the blade he slapped it into the weapon and flicked his hand around. The kunai flew like a dart back to Naruto straight and point-first, explosive tag ticking away time.

Naruto grinned and made the shunshin seal in record time.

* * *

It had been a well-chosen bet to make that Lee would know that skill, but he'd realised when Lee had started to talk about being a genius of hard work that he had to find and use a weakness in Lee's endlessly drilled taijutsu skills. Repetition of something means you do it without thinking, but the only thing drilled skill Naruto could do well enough to compete against Lee with would be the one Jiraiya had made him practise endlessly. 

If anyone asked, he'd keep quiet about how the Sannin had taught him jounin-level mastery of the body-flicker technique. Ero-sennin had demonstrated ridiculous levels of mastery of it, using chakra-enhanced speed to make unlikely motions like taking a head-stand position faster than the eye could see, and running over water with lightening speed. The hermit had originally intended to teach his student the Yondaime's own speed jutsu, but though Jiraiya had many faults, sloppy teaching was not one of them. So he'd told Naruto to practise shunshin to perfection, independently, and after an aggravating lack of progress from the blond, decided drastic measures had to be taken. He instructed Naruto in the training-game of 'kunai-tag', a risky duel between shinobi in returning a kunai point-first to its thrower. He'd affixed an exploding tag to the blade, and challenged Naruto to return it before it blew up. Several days practise and the repeated loss of his eyebrows later, Naruto was a lot better at body-flickering on command and he graduated to catching objects thrown with flash speed in directions away from him (which offered Jiraiya no end of amusement - "fetch, boy".)

Naruto was certain he'd never forget the motion used to flip the kunai round and send it flying back – the angle had to be just right, or it'd head in the wrong direction and Jiraiya would snort in disdain and lie back, eyes shut, until Naruto got bored and dropped his guard, and when _that_ happened another kunai would invariably fly towards him and probably hit and drop to the ground as well, and he'd fumble to kick it out of the way before it detonated, but generally fail. Jiraiya would tell him to polish the soot off the kunai before returning it, not looking up. No, Naruto wasn't going to forget that skill any time soon.

And it had been logical to assume Lee had learned the kunai-tag game, particularly since he didn't have to normal evasive option of kawarimi no jutsu. As the kunai flew back, Naruto automatically used shunshin-aided speed to return the kunai, and Lee moved with equivalent alacrity to volley it.

* * *

To and fro the kunai went between them, blurring beyond visible sight. Their hands blurred too, the exchange requiring constant movement that was reflexive for both. For four long seconds, the audience was still and silent, forgetting Gaara and Sasuke to watch this dangerous game. 

Four seconds is – _nearly_ - up ---

Naruto had one advantage over Lee, and one alone. He could use chakra. So when he stretched out his hand to return the kunai that would have detonated in between them (Lee hadn't known how long the timer on the tag was set for, and hadn't had time to think things through, which had of course been why Naruto had done it), the prankster used kawarimi combined with shunshin and the borrowed momentum of the kunai, and moved in a perfect leap towards Lee, at speed even the sharingan would strain to follow.

And Naruto slapped him while in midair, so the surprised Lee fell backwards. Naruto's hands flashed in seals - because that was what ero-sennin said the best use of shunshin was, record fast jutsu, flick-flick-flick-strike-_win!_ – and he completed them as he came to land on his opponents torso.

Lee's legs pinned him and his hands came up in a trained response, neck jutting forward with strained cords visible. He would have easily destroyed Naruto in a close-up taijutsu match.

But he noticed Naruto's hands. One hand was held with two fingers to his mouth, the other crossing it in a cancellation sign (used to allow ninja to simulate hand-seals but nullify the jutsu they signified, so friendly matches still required accurate hand-seals). Lee stopped struggling as Naruto pronounced:

"Katon, Goukakyu no Jutsu."

It wasn't the deadliest fire move, but if he had done it for real - well, Lee's face was only three inches from Naruto's opened mouth. Rock Lee tapped the ground to concede the match, unnerved by Naruto's intent face as much as he was dispirited by the defeat. Chakra would always prove his down-fall, he was accustomed to that, but it rankled. And the Yondaime's son showed no joy at winning.

Until he removed himself from Lee, that is, at which point he grinned enormously, eyes shutting happily as he raced in a circuit around the arena with no visible signs of exhaustion, and then returned to Lee with a look of such pride and happiness on his face Lee felt guilty for his defeated demeanour. That's right, he would be joyful for his friend's youthful success, and strive to learn strategic skills to match Naruto's!

"Well done," Konoha's beautiful green beast said, genuinely. "Good luck against Gaara or Sasuke, whichever one."

The two walked back in together, Naruto telling Lee how he'd devised his strategy. But the halls were eerily silent, and they both heard slow, heavy footsteps. They stopped talking, and ascended with a little apprehension. And met Gaara coming down, who continued straight down the middle of the stairs without appearing to even see them. Both stopped as they passed him, and stayed there – one against either wall in the stairwell – looking at each other in half fear and half indignation.

* * *

This is the longest chapter yet. I hope it doesn't disappoint. There's only one more examination chapter left; in it, Sasuke gets a speaking role in this fic for the first time ever! In all honesty, he gets mocked somewhat. I apologise to Sasuke fans.  



	35. Exam Crashed

Sasuke had arrived in time to see Naruto's victory – a victory that seemed easy for the blond, whose use of shunshin no jutsu showed incredible control. It was humiliating to see his rival defeat the genin who had showed him up in front of his team, and Sasuke felt a renewed determination to fight and win against Naruto. He'd trained for speed in taijutsu, as well as learning his new secret move. But Naruto was still faster than him, and the Yondaime's son had (apparently) also defeated Hyuuga Neji. A Hyuuga, the genius rookie of the year above. Kazama Naruto was becoming worryingly strong, and Sasuke was as apprehensive about his rival's victories as much as he rejoiced at the idea of a true test of his strength.

But first there was Gaara, and before him the fight with Aburame.

_Bugs_, thought Sasuke in disgust. He would get this over with as quickly as he could.

So he and Kakashi left their hidden viewpoint and the jounin transported himself and his student to the arena, where the crowd spontaneously applauded them. Sasuke frowned. _They have no place here. This is a test of shinobi, and few of those fools can appreciate the glory of ninja combat._

Aburame Shino versus... Konoha's UCHIHA SASUKE!"

The audience gained enthusiasm, and it took all of Sasuke's self-control not to flinch or recoil in disgust at the feminine squeals he heard.

* * *

In the audience, Nara Rumiko and Nara Yoshino both muttered 'prick'.

* * *

But Sasuke dismissed the spectators from his mind without much difficulty as the battle started. The Aburame sent a cloud of insects towards him, face even more impartial than Sasuke's own. But the Uchiha had no time for this. 

He sent a series of miniature fireballs at the hovering clouds of bugs, and though most of them evaded, a significant number of charred black specks drifted to the ground. Sasuke smirked; he didn't like bugs.

Aburame's eyebrow twitched.

There was a moment of stillness that seemed apathetic to the audience, but the bug-user was filled with emotion. He hadn't wanted to enter this exam, had only complied with instructions for the sake of his team-mates. He would have deliberately lost in the preliminaries, but his insects had scared that girl and filled him with outrage for their sakes – how could someone fail to appreciate the glories of his friends? - and so without any particular effort he'd found himself here. And now his swarm was being – desecrated!! - by the unpleasantly arrogant Uchiha.

He did the only logical thing.

"I resign."

And walked away, resisting the urge to retrieve his lost comrades' carcasses.

* * *

Sasuke stayed in place, knowing his fight with Gaara would be next. Aburame had been an easy victory, but this would be a very different situation. He... couldn't wait!

* * *

Ino and Chouji both watched Gaara as intently as Shikamaru himself did, both curious and scared of this 'jinchuuriki'. Sakura and Naruto were both watching Sasuke and his opponent, but also sneaking suspicious looks at Team Ten, which was collectively acting very oddly. First Ino and Shikamaru tussling with the blonde kunoichi, now this creepy level of staring at the (admittedly very creepy) Gaara. Weird. 

But once the fight started, they saw why. Gaara defended against Sasuke without any discernible effort, even though Sasuke's speed was greater than it had been before. But Gaara used sand to block fireballs and kicks and projectiles without moving or even flinching himself.

Sasuke attacked faster and faster, though, and Gaara began to retaliate, creating a Sand Clone and attempting to trap Sasuke in the vulnerable moments after a failed attack. Sasuke came close to being trapped by constricting sand, but with his sharingan he could predict strikes, and evade accordingly. The duel was rapid and brutal, and the audience was drawn into to it – a match of simple but skilled moves, with no trickery on either side. Sasuke's bloody-red sharingan eyes and black hair against white skin, his traditional clothing and proud stance made him look like a noble or hero, valiant against a monstrous foe. (And as Gaara's sand clawed and struck at the Uchiha, Shikamaru remembered being chased by the sand, unable to do anything but defend. They said Sasuke was a better ninja than him, and he believed them. Why wouldn't Sasuke prove them right?)

Ino and Chouji didn't think so. They looked at each other over Shikamaru's head (the Nara was slumped, depressed because he'd hoped Sasuke would defeat Gaara and relieve the reluctant genius of that responsibility). But – Shikamaru belatedly register the topic of their conversation - Ino was asking Chouji if he thought it was obvious what Gaara was from his appearance. _Ugh, female troublesome nature_. Shikamaru gestured for them to _not speculate, idiots_, on Gaara's demonic nature and probable extra skills. Naruto, under no such compunction, asked his teacher if what Jiraiya had said about the Suna-nin was true. Behind Team Ten's heads, a brief but enlightening discussion of the nature of the Sand Shukaku took place (and Shikamaru guessed from Naruto's questions that the other boy didn't know about the Kyuubi, and relaxed.) Ino raised her eyebrows at Shikamaru, and he shrugged – what was she doing that for? - and slumped down further, because the jounin discussing demons were probably looking at the back of his head meaningfully.

But Naruto, who was sitting directly behind Shikamaru, tapped his friend on the shoulder. The Nara tipped his head straight back, so he was looking at an upside-down blond shock of hair topped with very blue eyes (one was blackened, and his lip was swollen). Naruto looked serious, so Shikamaru shut his eyes, hoping he'd go away if ignored.

Naruto pulled on his pony-tail.

"Ne, Shikamaru?"

He really didn't want to have a serious conversation with Naruto, especially not about Gaara. And he really, really, didn't want to not-have this conversation with everyone else around.

But Naruto was probably giving him that pleading look. He sat up and swivelled himself in his chair, resting his chin on the back of it and frowning at the other boy. He didn't say anything, but Naruto knew him, and after years of silent communication this didn't phase him at all.

"What exactly happened that day at the hospital?"

Oh _fuck it. _

"Nothing happened, Naruto." Although even Sakura could tell this was not a satisfactory answer, and she was busy watching Sasuke fight. The raven-haired shinobi was not having much luck. His hair was lanky with sweat, now, and his moves were starting to lose their precision.

But although Sakura was entranced by Sasuke, she was a female, and therefore had multi-tasking capabilities. She noticed Shikamaru lying, and looked at the two.

"Is this that thing about Shikamaru having some weird skill?" She asked, recalling Naruto's attempts to find out about said supposed skill.

"No," Ino said, cutting off both males as they started to respond, "It's just Naruto telling tall tales. Shikamaru is waaay too lazy to lie and I found out about that incident with Gaara ages ago from him."

Shikamaru was profoundly grateful that he'd told Ino about the Kyuubi. She lied with a complacent fluency that seemed completely natural.

But Naruto looked indignant, and things might have degenerated if Sasuke hadn't chosen that moment to renew his attacks on Gaara.

* * *

Sasuke had been forced to change tactics. He backed off and was pursued for a few feet by hovering sand, but the sand soon returned to its master, curling around his feet. 

"Pathetic" Gaara spoke at last, dismissing Sasuke totally. The last Uchiha felt a wave of outrage sweep over him, and the pressure of the curse seal on his neck. But that would truly be pathetic, giving in to a taunt and using the power of another. No, he had a secret weapon, and he would use it and win this fight. Nothing else was acceptable.

Sasuke crouched, sharingan spinning. He braced one arm with the other, and drew blue crackling lightening into being with a snarl.

Kakashi smiled proudly behind his mask as his protégé charged, enjoying the rapt attention that the Chidori gained his student. Gai was explaining the Chidori to an impressed audience, but the Copy Ninja didn't listen, watching his student. The poise Sasuke had pulled that off with showed that he would carry on the Uchiha legacy for brilliance, gaining Konoha's favour while he was at it. And his team-mates were reacting completely naturally to such a display: Naruto complained that he didn't have a move that cool-looking, Sakura and Ino swooned, and Chouji and Shikamaru exchanged glances of mutual disgust at everyone else's expense. All was right with the world, thought Kakaski, eye curling up in a smile.

But Gaara had sensed the danger in that move. He tilted his head back, blue eyes passing over the Genin in that one section of the stands. He looked directly at Shikamaru, and set his hands together with a dangerous smirk. And the sand rose around him and closed in, forming a perfect sphere just as Sasuke looked up and begun a charge, too late to reconsider.

The ferocious Chidori filled the stadium with an unearthly sound, and Sasuke's speed reached amazing levels. And he struck, the sand caved in. Sasuke's hand was stuck, and he tugged it outwards, face becoming strained.

* * *

The collective shock of the spectators was foolish, thought Temari, who had been observing with Kankuro from the medical bay. Of course Gaara wouldn't be taken down by this fancy-eyed Leaf. But Gaara could have beaten him before this; by no means had he needed to resort to – this! _He's ignoring the plan_, she thought, scared. 

He was planning on attacking that cursed Nara boy. And by using _that jutsu_, as well.

But... that cry from the sand cocoon. _He's... wounded!_

* * *

The horror felt by the audience as a monstrous sand-coloured arm grabbed Sasuke was shared by Shikamaru. More so, even. Gaara had looked at him, practically telling him that this – display - was for_ his_ benefit. Even before Sasuke pulled out of the sand, Shikamaru had felt the demonic chakra that had once paralysed him, stronger than before. And that inhuman arm, combined with the fact he'd cocooned himself like an insect, it was obviously the catalyst for some kind of metamorphosis. _Gaara is... transforming?!_

But after a horrible moment, the strange chakra vanished and the sand fell loosely to the ground; Gaara crouched there almost blankly for a minute, cradling a blood-stained arm. He turned his face to Sasuke, both of them staring horrified at one another.

"You... drew my blood." Gaara said, amazed.

And Temari, pulling him away.

It seemed dream-like, the sequence of events. When had Temari got there? The ANBU guards should have stopped someone from invading the pitch (their faces and voices were different, and a flash of intuition struck Shikamaru but slipped away, because this wasn't real), but the focus of the match had been shattered by shock so it wasn't a match any more. Until a minute ago, Gaara had been playing along happily, then he'd changed. _Changed into a nightmare image_, thought Shikamaru, _so I must be dreaming._

And he slumped down, awareness gone.


	36. Relinquo

Shikamaru was woken by Ino's cry of 'Kai!', and he kept his eyes shut, feeling like he was back in the academy. Sleeping in lessons, the best was to avoid reprimand was to remain (apparently) asleep so it didn't show if you were listening to the venomous reproach. He remembered Gaara and that awful chakra-construct with the demon's energy. Was it some kind of genjutsu hallucination? _No_, he thought, hearing voices and fighting around him. _This is the attack. They put us to sleep._ And – he was certain, now his mind had focussed – Gaara was the Sand's contribution to the attack co-ordinated by the Sound, a human weapon of doubtless unsurpassed brute force. The Sound would most likely have a task force, one to destroy key enemy – Leaf – figures, while Gaara attacked indiscriminately.

Ino shook him, vehemently hissing - _'get your lazy butt up before I start hurting you'_. Kakashi and Gai's voices were audible, so she'd been commanded to wake genin by them. So he was expected to fight. To fight Gaara, even. But her voice was disgustingly concerned, so despite his reluctance he opened his eyes.

And looked into her worried face. Blue-black eyes staring straight into his own, caring even though she'd been harrassing him.

She moved forward and whispered into his ear, obviously not wanting to be overheard.

"Kakashi's sending a team after Gaara's team. Sasuke-kun ran off, so it'll be us with Naruto and Sakura. But listen, you can't let Naruto and Forehead-girl go after him alone. Promise me that, 'cause none of the rest of us can fight him and those two morons will want to try. Fucking _promise_ me, okay?"

She shook him, and he realised she was scared.

He was tempted to think 'I'm scared too', tempted to mutter "troublesome" – it'd be so much easier. He could ignore her anger and maybe his own guilt too. But... no. That wouldn't be fair, because he could fight and had fought Gaara, and Team Seven hadn't and most likely couldn't, particularly not the chakra-depleted Naruto. Naruto had gone running into the middle of things before, and of course he would do so again. Shikamaru was a lazy ninja, but he'd decided after the preliminaries not to be a selfish one, so he would do what he knew was the right thing.

"I promise, Ino." He murmured.

She sagged in relief for a moment, then stood up. Sakura was looking at them and obviously getting the wrong impression, Chouji was sat on top of his chair, eating fast and nervously, and Kakashi, Gai and Lee were running around driving out the anonymous attacking ninja. Asuma was smoking and not helping them.

Shikamaru went over to his sensei and recounted the deductions he'd made while he'd been waking up. Asuma nodded, face unreadable. He looked like he was about to say something, but he kept quiet.

Kakashi appeared at the back of the stands, and started speaking as if he'd been standing there all day.

"Okay, Sasuke pursued the Sand team. They are dangerous, although two of them are badly injured, and Sabaku no Gaara is more than likely crucial to their plan. We jounin will be needed here, so you five will form a pursuit team and prevent them from carrying out their plan, by any means necessary. The team will consist of Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji, and a tracker."

He then knelt, and performed a summoning technique, creating a dog. Ino and Sakura conversed with it, and all the genin introduced themselves. Asuma spoke quietly to Kakashi, and, as Gai smashed an attacking ninja through the wall between them, he stepped back, unruffled, and declared:

"Nara Shikamaru, you will be team leader for this mission. You are to use any means possible to neutralise the Shukaku's host" He waved the boy forward to where the dog waited at the impromptu exit, gesturing for him to lead the newly-formed team through that. Shikamaru walked unhappily past the masked man, who leaded forward and murmured through his mask "Except reciprocating."

He gave Shikamaru a push, and the genin was forced to adjust his fall and jump. The dog hopped and clung to his back, and he felt that weight as if it was the gravity of all the responsibility he had just been given. And ... "_except reciprocating"_... To reciprocate, to do the same as someone else. Gaara's value as a weapon of mass destruction had to be the ability to take on the shape of the demon Shukaku that was sealed inside him. The Copy Ninja Kakashi feared that he could do the same with the creature sealed inside _him_. He remembered the tense pulse of chakra-energy under his skin, the instinctive understanding of how to fight with the Kyuubi's chakra. Troubled, he thought; everyone wanted him to fight Gaara, but how far did they expect him to go to to that? How could they expect him to match the other jinchuuriki in combat when he had sub-par ninja skills and the - alternative option - was completely untested.

But, he'd promised Ino, and now it was more than a promise that bound him, it was the specifications of a mission. Rules had never concerned him overly, but he was in charge, and that responsibility to his team overrode any laziness or reluctance he had. He'd do his best.

* * *

After landing from the long drop, Pakkun jumped down and took the lead. Naruto and Sakura overtook Shikamaru (naturally those two were concerned about Sasuke, but that pace would mean they'd arrive out of breath. They'd realise and slow down shortly, though, so he didn't mention it), and the lazy genin moved automatically in synchrony with Ino and Chouji. Sakura didn't slow down, although Naruto dropped back to behind her. The entire group followed Pakkun without noticing the scenery they passed, silent.

Four minutes travel, and they ran into Kankuro. It was a measure of the puppeteer's stealth skills – as well as the lack of practice of the pursuit team – that they didn't notice him. Not until he leapt from the foliage behind Sakura and pulled a chakra thread across her exposed neck, standing against her with hands ready to twist and garotte.

"I'll kill her if any of you take another step." He threatened, "You Konoha bastards broke my Karasu, I'd enjoy returning the favour."

The painted leer looked threatening now, and Naruto stopped dead. Shikamaru grabbed Ino before she could advance further, and whispered instructions.

Ino moved to half-way between Naruto and Shikamaru, while Chouji moved to Shikamaru's side, was commanded by the lazy genin, who didn't look at his friend or move his lips, and who then moved to obscure Shikamaru.

Ino pulled Naruto backwards, wary and obviously fearful for Sakura's safety. Naruto continued backing away until he was in turn mostly hidden behind Chouji, while Ino wailed loudly and melodramatically. Sakura, who was by no means stupid, began to shake and sob and raised her hands to hold Kankuro's arms, tugging ineffectively. He couldn't use his hands while holding the threads in place, so he had to hiss at her to be still, narrowed eyes turned to her threateningly.

And Naruto, Chouji and Shikamaru advanced (after a highly suspicious pause) while Kankuro was busy with Sakura. Naruto stayed in front of the shadow-ninja, who was edging to put the sun between himself and Kankuro.

But Kankuro had seen Shikamaru fight, and he backed away and pulled the chakra-string tighter in warning. He kept his eyes on Shikamaru, even when the others tried to draw his attention, and warned the Nara against using his shadow-bind. But – Naruto was moving to one side too, and positioning himself to catch Kankuro in his shadow! They must have used henge to switch while they hid behind the fat one!

He was furious with himself – he'd already badly under-estimated one Leaf genin, thinking that the green spandex-wearing freak would be an easy target, and Karasu had been literally scrapped as a result. And he'd nearly just made the same mistake again!

In fact, he had made the same mistake again. As he moved his hands to cut a trail of blood across Sakura's neck, the _real_ Shikamaru froze the puppeteer in place with the _kagemane_ from his position high in the trees. He raised his hands high, and so did Kankuro.

"Now, Ino." It was her cue to use the _shintenshin_. He then spoke to the confused and angry puppet master: "The Shikamaru on the ground is Naruto's bunshin, henge'd. They do say no-one ever looks up."

The bunshin vanished in a puff of smoke, and Kankuro grinned and called "mission accomplished" in Ino's voice. Shikamaru released the hold and dropped down.

"Okay. Chouji and Ino, back to the town. Chouji, take her body" -for he was holding the Yamanaka's limp form- "If you can get someone to look after our prisoner, get orders from a jounin and help the situation back in Konoha." He turned to Naruto, who was with Sakura, fussing over her. "You two, we'll go onwards with Pakkun. Unless you need a medic." He directed the last comment at the kunoichi, who shook her head.

The team split up, Ino and Chouji wishing the others luck.

* * *

"Well, that's us out of the game" Ino said, the words drawled oddly in Kankuro's voice.

"Don't complain!" Chouji retorted.

"I dunno, it's not like we'd have done much with five of us there" Ino answered. "And I kind of wanted to see Shikamaru fight Gaara."

Chouji gave her a suspicious look, adjusting the body slung over his shoulders.

"What? It's not often you see Shikamaru actually put effort into something. And, Gaara. You can't say that wouldn't be an impressive fight. He's not dumb enough to let some Sand guy beat him."

They continued on in silence.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Ino. Shikamaru's too smart to put himself in a situation where he won't be okay." Chouji said.

"Yeah..." She sighed, as far as it is possible to sigh when bouncing from branch to branch at high speed. _But he's not smart enough to deny a request from me. And I made him promise._


	37. Determination

Shikamaru could feel the Shukaku's chakra as they drew near to Gaara, and it took all his new-found sense of duty to approach. Naruto was alternately springing ahead with haste and hanging back to let Shikamaru lead (chattering to him, mostly about how he'd wanted to fight Sasuke and had had a great plan to use against him), since the shadow-user was leader. Sakura was staying at the back, ashamed of having hurried and been caught. Shikamaru thought this was foolish, since _none _of them had sensed an attack, so it wasn't her fault. But he was too tense to speak, so he just watched Pakkun's movements.

As they heard Sasuke's battle-cry they saw fragments of the too-bright aura of the Chidori through the trees, leaving after-images. Naruto dashed forward frantically, closely followed by Sakura. They heard Gaara's screech of pain, and then felt renewed urgency as the insane genin screamed joyously and madly. Shikamaru stopped short behind the duo as they met their mutated opponent, shaken more deeply than he could admit by the other _jinchuuriki's _appearance. The fallen Sasuke, however, was covered in creeping traceries of black, marks that were no _fuuinjutsu_ Shikamaru had ever seen, but which were hot with chakra-energy. The team leader took a deep breath (he would swear he could taste the demonic chakra in the air, the sense of it was so oppressive), and forced himself to plan. First, the Uchiha needed help. Sasuke's arm was limp, his body still twisted and prone from an awkward landing. His eyes were scarcely focussed, despite the determination in his frowned eyebrows.

"Sakura, take Sasuke to a medic." Shikamaru's voice was clipped, because Gaara had just noticed him.

"Nara" The twisted voice laughed. Gaara's face was twisted, half human. His tail lashed behind him, and he smiled grotesquely. "You'll make an even better opponent than he did."

Then he laughed cruelly and drew his sand-swollen arm back to himself - it was an ugly amalgam of sand and flesh, Shikamaru saw - and then flicked it back out. Shuriken made of sand flew at the kunoichi, who was raising Sasuke gently into a fireman's lift.

Shikamaru jumped, stretched his shadow, mentally calculating from the angle of the sun where in the air it would fall and adjusting his calcuations to catch each projectile. This response was almost reflexive, but not quite, so he had time to consider how much it would hurt to be paralysed by the Shukaku's energy and fall all the way to the forest ground. For one cowardly instant, he was tempted not to activate the bind. But he did it.

It hurt when the shadows connected, but he could still move. The demon energy in the clumps of hardened sand didn't disrupt his chakra, surprisingly, and the implications of that occupied his mind as Sakura left carrying her fallen team-mate (who croaked out in a hoarse whisper something about his continued ability to fight, but it was for the best that those two were gone). He could not let anything except his mission and the safety of his team matter.

He landed, admittedly roughly, and Naruto took up a position next to him. Gaara settled himself into a stance, lopsided with that one arm and tail.

* * *

Shikamaru spoke in an undertone to Naruto: "I can't use my _kagemane_ without his chakra hurting me."

"Great," Naruto complained "I've got no chakra, you've got no jutsus. But well then, what are we waiting for?!"

Without delay he flung kunai at Gaara, aiming for the human side of his body. Gaara effortlessly deflected them with his tail, but Naruto used that moment to spring at him with shunshin speed, angling his body to kick Gaara's transfigured face. Gaara lifted his altered arm and knocked the orange-wearing attacker to the side, making Naruto twist in mid-air to land on a tree-trunk.

"Get down from there, conserve your chakra!" Shikamaru tersely called, mind furiously working on a plan. This felt hopeless.

Gaara cast more shuriken at the both of them, and they evaded, hiding behind separate trees. During the brief respite this position offered, Shikamaru spotted Temari, above the easily accessible level of the forest and curled into a fragile position. Her eyes followed Gaara's movements. Other than her, the forest was deserted, and the only sounds were those made by Gaara: charging or throwing shuriken or hissing in thwarted rage. It made the woods seem closed in and small, oppressive because of the hunter in their midst.

After a few nerve-racking minutes Naruto couldn't stand to hide any longer. Gaara's appearance had seemed even more monstrous in the mind's eye - when he was allowed to play the part of a predator he looked like a child's nightmare. Naruto swung down from a tree, screaming in a battle-cry and --

--He was knocked away by a simple but horrifically fast back-handed strike from Gaara. The Yondaime's son was flung powerfully through the trees, unable to slow himself down without chakra.

Gaara grinned sadistically, watching the bright figure grow distant, then turned to the tree that hid Shikamaru.

"Come out of there, Na-ara" He drew the name out, so it rhymed with his own. "Come and play, come and challenge my existence!"

Shikamaru felt something akin to terror as the level of chakra the other jinchuuriki was channelling rose. Gaara's other arm had transformed. Even from this distance, Shikamaru was acutely aware of the demonic chakra. It made the hairs on his arms stand up, constricted his throat as he breathed in. He felt his own heartbeat, and, deeper, the pulse of his chakra.

He shut his eyes, pressing his back against the reassuringly solid tree-trunk. He could only win – maybe only _survive_ – by fighting Gaara with the Kyuubi's chakra. He had no other options, and not for the first time he regretted not learning more jutsu and skills. The demon inside him was an unknown value, and a frightening one. Gaara was scary because of his appearance, but also because he reflected Shikamaru's fears about his own nature as ademon-host. _No, think logically_. For one, if Naruto deducted Shikamaru's_ jinchuuriki_ status he might become emotionally unbalanced and less able to fight (And it was possible Shikamaru would lose a friend, but that wasn't relevant to the mission). Secondly, he had found it difficult to plan when he'd fought Gaara in his garden, and drawing on more of the demon's energy might exacerbate that loss of acuity.

Shikamaru opened his eyes in a hurry as he heard Gaara charge, faster than before, and he leapt to another tree, making two more hops and putting himself behind a sheltering trunk.

He saw the tree he'd just left explode into chips of sand and wood; Gaara leaping again.

The extra chakra the Sand ninja was using raised his speed. _I can't hold out for long against him like this, my only option is to get to Naruto._ He sprang through close networks of branches, hoping to slow the bulkier Gaara down.

He tried frantically to think what he would tell Naruto. For some reason, it didn't occur to him to lie. Naruto had trusted him with so much of his own life and secrets that it would seem a huge betrayal to fail to explain the truth of his fathers death, something that had been kept secret for far too long.

He found Naruto climbing – without chakra, as specified – along a branch, determinedly heading straight for the two fighting. Shikamaru grabbed his arm and jumped them both to a higher branch, crouching.

"Naruto, listen. Gaara wants to kill me because I'm also a _jinchuuriki_. Sorry, but-." He cursed himself for not saying this when he would have had time to think it through, and closed his eyes and spoke bluntly: "Your father didn't kill the Kyuubi, he defeated it by sealing it into me on the day I was born, using a jutsu that required his life in payment."

There was a brief but intense silence into which Shikamaru felt himself cringe. Then Gaara screamed and flung shuriken at the two. Shikamaru reasserted himself and grabbed Naruto around the waist, chakra-jumping up and sideways in a flash, then landing on his knees and crouching. Naruto shook himself and moved aside, giving Shikamaru a look that said he could dodge for himself, thank-you. Shikamaru ignored this, putting his hands together then in his thinking seal then taking them back out of it as he realised there was no time. He'd said that for a reason, and he forced himself to persevere.

"That's relevant because I can use the demon's chakra; unlike my _kagemane_, that should work against him."

They both jumped back from another attack, Naruto stumbling slightly; _because he's shocked or just from exhaustion_? Shikamaru asked himself.

But as they landed, Shikamaru getting cut by a stray sand-shuriken through sheer carelessness, Naruto looked at him with that same determination fighting Neji had inspired in him.

"Shikamaru. Do it."

Gaara twisted his arms around trees, and catapulted himself towards them

"Fine." Shikamaru said, as fast as he could without gabbling, "Stay back and analyse weaknesses; construct a plan for the two of us to use against him. You won't be able to rely on my strategies, I - don't know how doing this will affect me." He tried to keep his voice steady as he committed himself to this, but Naruto's face turned compassionate as he stepped back.

Gaara pulled his hand back to slash them.

Shikamaru faced him, set his fingers in the basic seal, then undid the shadow-trap line from around his wrist with chakra-aided speed, threw it out. The line met; both of them stilled, Shikamaru flinched with the flood of the Shukaku's chakra that surged through the shadow, hands shaking. But he dropped into a crouch and as he'd hoped, his chakra pulse was strong. He froze it.

The Kyuubi's energy rose like a wave in deep sea, invisible but horrifically strong.

Shikamaru, energised, leapt out of the crouch, igniting the thread-line that stretched between himself and Gaara with flame-like chakra. It raced ahead of Shikamaru to the other jinchuuriki, much like a fuse, and it flared out furiously as soon as it reached the sand-distorted demon-host. Gaara screeched dementedly, flailing backward.

Shikamaru pulled back his arm, fingers drawn ready to strike with claws. They, too, were surrounded by flickering crimson. He flung himself towards Gaara, teeth bared and feral.

And struck; Gaara howled.

And Gaara lifted his arms to attack back, but Shikamaru was already gone, bounding away as the blood-fire chakra burnt itself out reluctantly, leaving dark scar-like marks that were slowly scabbed over by more sand. He took position for another strike, red eyes focussed.

And Naruto and Temari watched from opposite sides as the two demon-hosts faced off.


	38. Desperation?

Naruto had had a lot to take in over the last four minutes; someone more highly strung wouldn't have coped. Or someone with more of a tendency to speculate. But his comparative lack of analytical skills meant that while he'd wondered about Shikamaru's recent strangeness, he'd never come to a conclusion about it that could be proved wrong. And he'd spoken to Jiraiya about Gaara, and somewhere, unacknowledged, suspicions had lain.

He'd think about the implications later – for now, he and Shikamaru had a fight to win. He tried to apply himself to thinking of strategies. It was difficult: chakra raged around the fighting two, and even though chakra sensing was not one of Naruto's best-loved skills, he could practically _see_ it, moving around Shikamaru like dye in water. And as if the menace that that energy gave off wasn't enough, the Nara's face was made savage, like it had been in the hospital. But the change was real now, not illusory, his eyes were blood-coloured and his whiskers (_why the hell didn't I wonder about those before?_ thought the blond) were black and jagged, but not incongruous. They suited Shikamaru's enraged face, they were appropriate for this wild, powerful version of his friend.

Naruto tried to ignore the differences in his appearance and concentrate on the way his fighting style had changed. It wasn't hard, everything from movement to aggression to modes of attack was dramatically altered by the fox's influence. The difficult part of the job he'd been given was just stop himself from thinking about the cause of those changes, and the implications of it. He watched.

* * *

Shikamaru swiped Gaara with clawed hands, flipped over his sand-broadened shoulders to rip at an ear, dodged his opponent's tail and then dived downwards through the trees as Gaara spun round and struck at him with both arms. He snarled instead of swearing when he realised the strategic loss this change in position represented, and backed off as he tried to regain the height advantage. It worked, because for now he was the faster of the two. 

But – no! As he'd climbed, Gaara had generated still more chakra, and everything except his feet had been changed. The gourd was now completely integrated into his form; the levels of demonic chakra coming off him made Shikamaru adjust his crouched stance and tighten clawed hands around the branch he was sheltering on in concern. The branch was one chosen because it wouldn't hold Gaara's weight, and it was near and above the enemy demon-host (or demon, now? No,_ that_ change surely would have been more dramatic). He watched the alert figure of the Shukaku's host, mind racing in an attempt to plan.

He realised he'd gouged gashes into the wood in frustration, and was tempted to examine his hands like he had in his kitchen. It was strange, to act without realising it, and to look back and see the change. It was as easy as well-practised tree-hopping to summon chakra around his hands for attacks, and not difficult to move on all fours or know how to balance like that. _Instincts_, he thought, _but I've got to plan as well. _

His thoughts about this form were interrupted as his opponent attacked, sending missiles towards Shikamaru; as the fox-host leapt back from them by reflex, Gaara turned to attack Naruto, who Shikamaru had just jumped away from. The Nara reacted instantly, turning and throwing chakra into a return leap, casting his shadow ahead of him to catch missiles that were moving faster than the unaided eye could follow. _Naruto hasn't got much chakra left, and for us to launch a decisive attack he needs all of it._ Shikamaru felt fiercely protective of the blond, and he positioned himself in front of his friend defensively.

Gaara raised one twisted hand to his head, baring his teeth in pain. _Why? _Shikamaru asked himself, but he didn't care – Gaara was exposing himself to attack. Shikamaru darted in, lashing out with ribbons of flame that lashed across the sandy form, then threw his shadow-snare weapon and caught the demon-boy's ankle. The still untransformed ankle, so he screamed and fell backwards, pulling Shikamaru (who was connected to him by the thread), and who pulled him back and punched him with a fire-covered fist. The Sand-nin was thrown back as Shikamaru disengaged the snare, snarling and whimpering like an animal, and he transformed his lower legs and screamed out a challenge.

"HahaHA! So you will fight, then! For your friends, such a foolish motivation."

He crouched, using his tail to balance, and charged. Shikamaru dodged, dancing a path of evasion that the slower and larger Shukaku-host couldn't follow. Then he circled, jumped into range of his enemy, and sent his fox-fire attack biting into him. They played a high-stakes game of tag, Shikamaru sly and evasive, engrossed in directing demon-chakra to mimic the shadow-bind and burn. His mind reduced to making basic tactics; go for that branch, stay out of his tail's range, retreat when he sucks in air for his _fuuton_ attack. He took a vicious pride in seeing Gaara's sandy flesh sizzled and blackened where it was touched, stopped thinking of strategies for winning – it was a game in stalemate, but he was hunting and hunted at once.

A pattern of attacks emerged – Shikamaru staying higher in the trees, flicking his thread of chakra-conducting material out like he was fishing and then sending a flare of energy down it as it connected and retrieving the thread while Gaara howled, leaping if he used a _fuuton_ sandstorm-like attack that lacerated skin and misdirected his chakra-snare. If he was lucky, he could get several attacks in before Gaara managed to smash his branch down or send Shikamaru into a retreat.

This dance went on for long minutes, the space around Gaara becoming clearer and clearer as his forceful attacks broke branches and severed tree-trunks. Shikamaru would be at a major disadvantage if it got too clear, but he was enraged that this creature had challenged him and hurt his friend; he'd kill it now.

* * *

Shikamaru had been cut across the shoulder by a shuriken, but he hardly seemed to notice. Naruto was worried about the blood that was turning his friend's green tee-shirt dark, but he'd stayed back because he couldn't move fast enough to be of help without the shunshin. He was limited to occasionally dodging or retreating as the two of them got too near. 

He wouldn't have thought it would be possible to be bored of a fight between two people using such ridiculous levels of (demon!)-chakra, particularly not since they were both pretty much geniuses. But Shikamaru's attacks seemed to just be making superficial wounds and annoying the Suna-nin, who hadn't yet been able to hit his foe. Shikamaru was moving too fast for Naruto to follow clearly, though he himself could have matched and exceeded that speed with shunshin. But Shikamaru had told him to make a plan, and now he had thought of one, stealing the idea from a scheme he'd been intending to use against Sasuke. It was his favourite kind of plan, as well – a cunning ninja trap!

First, he pulled out a special variety of explosive tag from his pack, then prepared the simple activator seal.

Next Naruto moved to behind his friend, who was growling under his breath at having to back away. He explained his idea briefly and affixed the tag to a kunai and then tied that onto Shikamaru's weird hand snare thing. He told him to store chakra in the secondary seal on the tag – it powered it, and the activator responded to a second burst of that chakra by detonating – and then made him power up a second set of tags. These things were damn expensive in shops, it was lucky he'd made Jiraiya teach him to prepare them. Shikamaru agreed on a signal with him, and Naruto set off.

The last of his chakra was used in shunshin-ing to set the tags on Gaara's back – the demon-host flailed with his tail to swipe Naruto away, but the blond kept ahead of it and ran up his back, jumping away as he stuck the last note on Gaara's forehead.

Then Shikamaru took aim, threw the kunai, jumping in close so it landed and stayed stuck in the arm Gaara had used to protect his face. The arm that had an explosive tag fixed to it only an inch away from the kunai.

Chakra ran down the 'fuse' of the thread.

And reached the tag stuck to the kunai.

And exploded outwards.

What followed was a chain reaction of monumental proportions, true fire mixing with chakra-flames that spread out and triggered more tags. Shikamaru got a more than a little burnt as he belatedly realised he was attached to an explosive (being linked to your projectile weapon was perhaps not the great idea he'd thought it was), but he sliced through the thread and leapt away from the worst of it in time.

Naruto laughed like a pyromanic as the bundle of sand, smoke, and leaping crimson flames fell to the ground. Shikamaru sighed in relief, feeling drained but more like a normal human now he'd expended so much of his borrowed chakra into the kunai. He squatted down to watch the explosion clear...

... And leapt back up as if he'd been scalded. The Shukaku's chakra roiled around the obscured site of Gaara's fall, and it focussed.

And the figure of a monstrous tanuki grew from the cloud of debris, expanding until it overshadowed the two, towering above the forest.

Naruto's jaw dropped, his eyes wide in horror. Shikamaru kind of slumped, feeling strangely distant from the whole thing. He wasn't thinking about what would happen, he wasn't really that scared, because although the raging chakra surrounding the enormous creature was pressing against his senses, he was shielded by the demon-chakra he himself was wielding. He just felt very tired, and realised he had probably exhausted his normal chakra supply and might well be going into some kind of oxygen-deprived shock if the Kyuubi's power worked differently enough it wasn't feeding his muscles properly. Then he realised how absurd it was to be worrying about energy supply theories and biology when he was going to die, and laughed.

Naruto looked at him, horrified.

Shikamaru realised he wasn't communicating very clearly, and that he was still feral-looking. Laughing wasn't sensible when confronted by a demon, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"We're screwed." He looked at his friend. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

And he was. Sorry for everything.

But Naruto grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him, blue eyes very clear.

"You're still in charge of this mission Shikamaru, you_ can't_ go to pieces now. Recite your objectives!"

The objectives rang in Shikamaru's head: _You are to use any means possible to neutralise the Shukaku's host_. Before he could take on fully demonic form and destroy Konoha. _It's a bit late now_, thought Shikamaru caustically. But Naruto was right, he had to focus.

Shikamaru didn't want to attack the demon, but he had to. He started a spiralling climb through the trees, hoping he would be able to think of a plan. His mind didn't seem to be working too well.

He had to defend Naruto, defend Konoha, even. It was an ambitious task, but if he didn't at least attempt it, he'd have to watch Naruto give everything up to try and do it himself. The blond had come up with a decent strategy against the previous incarnation of Shukaku, but he'd lost a lot of chakra against Lee and Neji, and most of the rest in various evasive manoeuvres and the initial pursuit. He was in no fit state to fight. Besides, Shikamaru had decided not to deny the implications of being a demon-vessel, and this would be the proof of it. Could he do anything against a demon? He had more of a chance than Naruto. Kakashi had told him not to copy Gaara's actions, but if he could, he would. Saving Naruto was more important than rules.

As he climbed and tried futilely to think of a strategy to defeat something thousands of times bigger than himself (and with no obvious vulnerabilities) he couldn't deny that he felt a certain excitement at the prospect of fighting for real. It was stupid to think that, when he might well die, but as Gaara said, he would prove his existence. It was one of those stupid things people felt the need to do, something he'd never seen the attraction of before. But he understood now: if he was going to die, there was nothing to gain from fearing it or complaining about how troublesome it was.

Shikamaru settled himself on the highest strong branch, and summoned up all the chakra he had left. And flung himself high into the air towards the eyes of the tanuki.

* * *

Shikamaru has no cunning plan. Please donate reviews to the fund to buy him one! (Or he'll DIE.) 

... Not really. But please review anyway.

Dictionary.

Tanuki – Japanese animal, the raccoon-dog. Which Shukaku is. Wiki them and read the mythology behind them, it's amusing. And involves testicles. 0.o

Fuuton – Air-element jutsu. The actual name of partially-transformed Gaara's attack I have forgotten, but he basically fires sand and air out of a load of mouths in his chest. It would be quite disturbing if he'd been better drawn.


	39. Damage

This chapter is slightly gorey. Skip Shikamaru's first section if you don't care for such.

And while I'm at it, thanks a lot to everyone who's reviewed and added this fic to their favourites, you guys rock! And rest assured Shikamaru will plan a cunning plan before the fic's end. :D

* * *

Naruto had not meant Shikamaru should pull off a suicide strike, but that was effectively what he'd just done. His friend must have known that a jump that long didn't give him time to evade, and Naruto could only watch helplessly as a massive arm lifted and smashed the fox-host aside. He'd jumped so very high, nearly to the demon form's shoulders. Shikamaru, batted away casually, flew through the air at a massive speed. The shadow-nin tried to roll into a ball or prepare to land, but the powerful strike rendered him helpless, he flailed as he fell and landed as limp as a ragdoll. 

The demon flicked his hand back after Shikamaru, sending thousands of sand shuriken at him casually.

"You disappoint me, Nara Shikamaru, you are weak! Give up your mission to 'protect' and fight to destroy me, protect only your own existence!!"

It was still Gaara's voice coming from that huge mouth. And that link to the human Gaara reminded Naruto that Shikamaru also had something – the Kyuubi – sealed inside him. Gaara was telling Shikamaru to fight on his level, and Naruto connected those clues and realised ... he was telling Shikamaru to transform himself.

But the blond ninja had more pressing concerns – the vast creature turned its attention to the other two humans in the forest. The demon lowered its tail and swept the huge limb through the trees, forcing Naruto to run and jump between displaced forestry in a frantic dash to stay out of the arc of destruction it made. Temari appeared, landing clumsily on all fours and leaping desperately to safer regions. She was so obviously terrified that Naruto completely forgot that she was an enemy, grabbing her wrist and helping her make a tricky jump, and from then on she followed him – he realised she'd sprained her ankle, she was hopping, crippled, but she refused his attempts to support her. They dashed together to stay out of the tanuki's path.

They spent a few terrified minutes being casually hunted by – _him? Or it?_ But fortunately Gaara lost interest in attacking them specifically, and once they got behind the monster and at a safe-seeming distance (almost a mile away from the demon's feet) they settled in a tree. It didn't really seem very safe to either of them, but nowhere would. Even this far away, they couldn't see the entire form of the demon in one glance.

"We need to find Shikamaru" Naruto said, slightly out of breath. It had been difficult to keep moving at a run without chakra after all the exertions of today. Temari had rode on her fan for a large part of the escape (to be fair, she was in pain) but he had no such advantage.

"I'm not an ally" Temari replied, curtly. She looked agitated; this had been troubling her for the quarter of an hour they'd spent running.

"That – thing!" Naruto pointed in the general direction of said 'thing', "Was going to kill the both of us!!"

Temari looked miserable. Naruto remembered Gaara was her brother, and felt a sudden surge of sympathy for her. He hadn't considered how hard it must be to witness this; empathy made him want to reach out and hug her.

But he couldn't do anything to mend what was between the two siblings, and he had no option but to continue fighting Gaara. (Or possibly Shukaku.) Whatever that monster was or had been, he wouldn't let it near Konoha. He wanted to help Temari, though, and he suddenly understood exactly what Shikamaru had felt when he'd said an awkward, helpless 'sorry' earlier.

* * *

Shikamaru had smashed a long trail through the trees, and was feeling very much the worse for wear. When he'd finally come to rest in the joint between a large branch and the trunk (under a sizeable split where he'd struck, looking back along a pathway carved by his battered body) he lay limp. He was concussed, he supposed. He lifted his hand to the back of his head, and felt blood. Exploratory fingers found a deep slice down the back of his head to his neck, one side of the cut drawn open by the hair-band that pulled his hair tight. His fingers ran along skin slick with blood, pulled on by hair; his forefinger pushed into the split in the flesh, and he realised with growing horror that he was touching torn flesh. 

In his dazed state, it took him a minute to realise he should take the pony-tail out, and he did so. There was blood on his hands, his hair was wet with it, that was what was running down his back under his shirt.

He hadn't got the regulation first-aid supplies in his weapons-pouch; it had been too troublesome to weigh it down with them.

He lowered his hand, and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. There was blood all over his fingers, not a speck of clean skin. His eyes were unfocussed, and his hair was falling into them - like blood, to his confused mind - but – _ohshit__that yellow-ish blur is _him_, the demon, Gaara!_ And it – he? - was doing nothing more strenuous than sweeping its tail, as if the limb was a brush – but - it was playing with Naruto, making him run! Naruto, running. Of course, Naruto couldn't really do anything else, he'd seen Shikamaru's attempt fail. He hardly had chakra to move, let alone jump and fight. Or run.

A fragmented sense of urgency made Shikamaru try to get up; he couldn't. His leg was twisted round, he realised, at a very unhealthy angle. He used his hands to move it so it didn't look broken, and realised he wasn't really in pain. _Why, _he wondered – anaesthetic affects of messed-up chakra? Paralysis? It didn't matter; if he couldn't fight like this, he'd just have to change. (Don't stop and consider it). With grim determination, he decided to draw on the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto was being played with, and this demonic Gaara could squash him like a bug. That was unacceptable – Naruto was under his command, and he'd been in charge of stopping Gaara and keeping his team alive. (He realised they'd said at any cost, and never told him to keep his team alive. But he didn't care, because being a shinobi is all about teams, and Naruto was never going to be an acceptable casualty. Do it.).

It was unacceptable. Shikamaru lifted the hand he could move, and placed it on his stomach. His top had ridden up, and half of the seal was visible. Several scratches cut through the black lines, but as his eyes unfocussed again they vanished. To his clouded eyes, it looked like something blue had erased them. But that didn't make sense. He wondered why the seal was there when he hadn't used chakra since jumping, and decided it must be keeping him alive. He was pretty sure he was hurt too badly to be thinking this clearly (because his mind had cleared now, and he was becoming scared). It didn't matter, though. He put his hand flat on top of the markings, and shut his eyes. The pulse of chakra was louder than his heartbeat, and he felt very scared for a minute before falling into a calming place where his awareness was limited to the world of chakra-energy. _Meditation_, he thought, wondering if he'd die now and then letting his mind relax. _This is really not the place for it... _

* * *

Naruto made himself be decisive, despite the mixed feelings he felt. The memory of Shikamaru being knocked away like a ragdoll was playing in his mind, and he needed to do something. _He might need first-aid, _thought the blond._ I wish I'd paid more attention to that kinda thing...I bet Temari knows more than me._

"I need to go and see if Shikamaru's okay. You should stay with me, you're injured and you don't know this terrain well." Actually, he was pretty sure it was fear of the tanuki-demon that was slowing her down most, since she'd bound her ankle and taken a pill in such a business-like manner. But he did have _some_ idea of discretion.

She hunched unhappily.

"What other option do we have? We've got a better chance of surviving this situation alive if we stay together!"

"I... don't want or need your help, and I'm not accepting _his_."

"What else could you do?"

"Go and find my brother."

It took Naruto a confusing moment to realise the puppeteer was related to her too.

"Ino and Chouji took him back to Konoha"

She looked concerned, but masked it with a scowl.

"Don't worry, Ino just used her mind-switching thing; he's not hurt."_ Unfortunately,_ he thought.

"That fucking moron, letting you lot take him out." She said with venom, after a brief silence that he couldn't read.

Naruto might feel sorry for her, but he really didn't like these Sand genin.

* * *

Shikamaru opened his eyes to see a sky overlaid with red chakra, and realised he must be in some kind of altered state of awareness. Or in some kind of metaphysical reality that represented the seal. That would make sense. 

Then he realised he was lying on his back on a tree-trunk, and the sky was above him. That was strange. He experimentally moulded some chakra, and was surrounded by a clear light-blue aura. The tree-trunk he was standing on looked normal through his own chakra made visible, whereas the rest of this place – he looked around experimentally – was tinted by the drifting red energy. He moved, and watched the currents of red chakra swirl around him, like water. He felt light, as if he was underwater and drifting, but he could breath fine. In fact, he felt unhurt, so this was obviously some kind of ... meta-Shikamaru. Some spiritual or metaphorical version of himself, fingers not clawed and hair tied back and his clothes weren't bloodstained or even sweaty, and they weren't perforated by branches. He couldn't resist raising his hand to the back of his head to see if he was cut there still, although he was sure he wasn't. He shuddered a little when he ran his fingers along the unbroken skin, remembering his bloody hands.

He had come here for a reason. He looked around, for the first time allowing himself to think about the thing sealed here. How did you ask for help from a demon?

Well, he'd just have to find out, wouldn't he. Shikamaru set off to find the Kyuubi no Kitsune.


	40. Demon

Shikamaru walked the length of the strange sideways tree-trunk he was standing on before he noticed something. These trees weren't all the same kind, and some of them were from the woods behind the Nara house. Those rose diagonally from what was presumably ground, though when he looked down the tree-trunks vanished into the seemingly endless crimson chakra. An idea occurred to him, and he began to move through those trees, hopping through them as he would in their real versions, and moving in that same way but without feeling strained.

The dream-like landscape wasn't quite like reality – sections of the forest were missing, some parts were blended together in the wrong order, some bland sections of unfamiliar forests were added in. It only took him a minute or two (he hoped time wasn't really passing in life) to find what he was looking for – the tree he'd climbed up two years ago, when his sister had seen the Kyuubi's seal on him. Sure enough, into the bark of the tree the character for 'seal' was carved, deep and too black against the wood. He walked up the tree (or maybe along it) tentatively. He studied the symbol. It wasn't painted, it was black like the opening of a deep hole, like it cut through the tree. Or like it ran all the way from this tree to some other part of reality, or meta-reality. This would really confuse him when he wasn't too busy worrying about fighting and death.

There was still no movement other than his own. He decided there was nothing for it, and put his hand flat over this seal. It felt like static electricity, but nothing happened immediately. What had he been expecting?

But then he realised that the movement of the lazily floating chakra had gained purpose. He looked up at the sky, and swore the tree he was on tilted so he wasn't straining his neck. But he forgot all the peculiarities of the trees when he realised what the movements in the sky were doing.

The massive face of a fox solidified out of the chakra.

Its body was being created as he watched, wisps of deeper red forming shades that gained more and more detail and apparent solidity. He watched in fascination, estimating that the chakra-based being would stand just slightly higher than Shukaku. _How interesting_, thought the less analytical part of his brain, _I've met two demons today_. He couldn't quite bring himself to be surprised or amazed, so he looked calmly up at the creature. _The Kyuubi_, he reminded himself.

There was a moment of silence; the fox was looking at him. It had become very solid-looking, and he remembered that demons created their bodies from raw chakra. This was no genjutsu or clone - the Kyuubi was real, insofar as anything in this world was real. Shikamaru was apprehensive now, but his mind was clearer and having an aim let him focus.

"Kyuubi." Said Shikamaru, not bothering to raise his voice, "Wouldn't it be embarrassing to lose by proxy to the Ichibi?"

* * *

Temari sighed, spoke flatly.

"I guess I can't go back to Konoha to look for him. That'd be even more suicidal than staying here." She covered her eyes with her hand, rubbing her temples as if she had a headache.

"Look, do you know how to stop him?" Naruto waved at Gaara.

"It's basically fucking impossible" The kunochi gritted out from between clenched teeth.

"How could you stop him?"

"Ridiculously high-level jutsus or summoning something equally fucking monstrous, okay? Let's not be suicidal, shall we, 'cause I don't want to see a kid like you get shredded by him."

"What about Shikamaru?" Naruto had picked up the fact she didn't see the other boy as a peer of Naruto.

"I really don't want to see those two fight." She spoke as if she was restraining herself from saying something else.

"Shikamaru... isn't - like Gaara!" Naruto said, not sure how to express what he wanted to. It had only then occurred to him that her odd attitude to Shikamaru was similar to the way people had treated him at home; beforehand he hadn't connected the fact the Kyuubi had been sealed inside his friend with the way people didn't like him. Naruto felt outrage on behalf of Shikamaru, and it was an effort to repress the hatred he felt for all those people who saw Naruto's father in the son, and who shunned Shikamaru.

"And Shikamaru _doesn't_ deserve to be left out here at Gaara's mercy, he was doing what he was required to, like you were in bringing Gaara out here to turn himself into a monster. Don't tell me you wanted to watch that, and don't tell me you want to let your village use him like a weapon; he's _your brother_. He deserves to be treated like a human being, and so does Shikamaru. So help me, and we _will_ sort this out with neither of them dying."

Temari wanted to run away from those eyes; they were too strong.

She nodded.

* * *

The Kyuubi's face was gigantic – Shikamaru had to tilt his head to see the demon's eyes, and he couldn't focus on both of them at the same time. When the fox replied, he tried not to look at the wide mouth and its dangerous teeth.

"Not to lose by proxy? Will you let me win directly, then?"

It was ... smiling, almost, in a very nasty way. Shikamaru hadn't expected the fox to know what cynicism was, but that tone...

"I don't think so." Shikamaru said flatly, folding his arms over his knee and leaning a little towards the demon in concentration.

"Then, Nara Shikamaru, vessel; what do you propose?" It asked

It wasn't a good idea to get distracted by worrying how it knew his name, but Shikamaru got mentally sidetracked for a minute. He shook it off.

"I don't know what you're capable of. But if you can lend me your chakra, you presumably have some ability to affect things."

"Affect _you_, vessel, and only when you permit it." The fox retorted, seeming disapproving, "You are astute enough to have realised that."

"Could I defeat Gaara with your help?"

"I shall not be defeated by the Ichibi." The thing corrected, "And if I connect you to my chakra, you will have the latent strength to defeat him."

Geez, that really wasn't an answer. Who would have thought a demon-fox would be so intellectual? It was acting like his teacher or something, dammit. But he would have to play this game of analysis:_ Connected to its chakra? _

"What consequences would being linked to you have for me? How's that different from what I did before?"

"By stopping your own energy circulatory system you allowed an insignificant part of my chakra to diffuse across the seal. If you do the same and I direct my energy into you, it would be... more dramatic." The fox's voice didn't change much from a low growl, but he was sure it was amused.

"Dramatic like Gaara?"

The fox growled startlingly, its chakra raced in agitated eddies and swirls away from it.

"I would not try to alter a human host that crudely." _So demons had control over 'altering' their hosts, did they?_ "To channel much energy, a weak human body has to be adapted. At the moment, you are superficially different, but it is the effect of the youki and will fade. To be able to use higher levels of that energy without damage you would be fundamentally changed, but you would look much the same as you did fighting the Ichibi host."

"But - Shukaku altered Gaara to make him like that?" Shikamaru was not going to trust the fox, even if it did seem straightforward.

"Shukaku is even less intelligent than you, so-called human genius, and he has deformed that boy by attempting to escape the seals that hold him there. Doubtless the results amuse him; however, they are not intentional." The fox seemed disdainful. "It's pathetic but interesting to see your kind twist themselves to gain our strength, depressing to see them twisted by us for sport. But I have nothing else to do, and ... you're more of a curiosity than most: you genuinely don't want power, but you aren't bound by foolish ideals of integrity. If you were prissy and feeble I'd deform or destroy you; if you were greedy for strength I'd deny it to you. But you are defined by intelligence, so I'll challenge you: this is your fight to win. Your life-span won't vary much either way, so the outcome means little to me. But it will be a diversion, after twelve years of monotony.

"If you want to win your fight and save that yellow boy, learn fast. Shut down your chakra supply!"

Shikamaru took a deep breath. His chakra pulsed strongly, he didn't think he had a heart-beat here. The blue aura diminished, but didn't vanish. He was too on edge to do as the fox asked him - the aura of human chakra around him seemed necessary, protective, safe, and the red energy seemed to be creeping in and it seemed threatening now.

But - he had to save Naruto.

The blue energy vanished, and the Kyuubi's form dissipated, and so did the surreal forest. He was floating in chakra (youki, Kyuubi had said), a crimson sea that was now as still as glass.

It was getting darker.

Shikamaru took a deep breath, although it wasn't real. And reached out and gathered the Kyuubi's youki into himself.


	41. Devenir

Shikamaru wasn't sure if he'd returned to reality yet when he woke up, because the sheer level of chakra he was channelling made everything else very faint in comparison. He was overloaded with it, and flames were rising off his skin where the latent force of energy too strong for him to contain.

But then he looked at the tanuki, his target. _You want me to prove my existence, Gaara?_ He got to his feet, feeling his perception of forces adjust until he could sense past the Kyuubi's energy. Combat analysis: he had more chakra – youki was the technical term, he committed it to memory without thinking – than Gaara, and was fast enough to make the tanuki's overgrown form a disadvantage. He began running the two miles back through the trail of shattered trees, building momentum.

And it was exhilarating to run like that, beyond any speed achieved by shunshin. Flames of youki left a comet-like trail as he charged, and his loose hair blew back behind him, he landed and jumped off trees without ever seeing them, and the peripheral landscape was so blurred that he couldn't have if he'd tried. But he didn't need to, and his eyes stayed fixed on the demon.

He leapt, firing himself through the air with body tensed like a weapon held ready. He gathered chakra, and the blood-coloured aura around him flared more intensely still; he focused it and when the tanuki's tail swung to bat him aside he pushed the chakra ahead of him, and it melted the sand to glass. He bounced off the newly hardened piece of the tail, leaping to slash with a red-coated clawed hand that left more imperfect glass in its wake. But he slid down when he tried to dash up the giant body, so he crouched and left trails of simmering fire in his wake until he threw himself out and backwards, hoping to leap off an arm. Gaara de-solidified the limb as he jumped towards it, leaving Shikamaru falling through separate grains of sand that leached at his youki aura. But the Kyuubi's host felt only discomfort, and it turned to rage quickly.

And Gaara threw his Sand-demon form backwards, raising his own body from the sand. He was outmatched by the power the Kyuubi held, he needed to strike with high-level jutsu and he couldn't use those skills himself. There was only one thing for it.

So as Shikamaru fell to the ground, his opponent lifted his head, opening black-rimmed eyes to set his fingers together.

"Tanuki meiri no jutsu!"

Shikamaru backed off to give himself the run-up necessary to reach Gaara.

Gaara's black-rimmed eyes shut.

* * *

Naruto and Temari had stopped their cautious advance as an enormous chakra level intruded on their senses. They watched, wide-eyed, as a blur of blazing chakra-fire leapt seemingly effortlessly to slash at the Sand-demon, and as it fell.

And Temari's eyes went wide and truly panicked as a black and red shape appeared on the demon-formed host's brow.

"What's he doing?" Naruto demanded, picking up on Temari's fear.

"Tanuki possess hosts when they sleep. They pick at a person's awareness and destroy their sense of self, and so Gaara never sleeps. If he does, the Sand Shukaku can control his body."

"That's ... worse than this, then?" Naruto asked quietly, gesturing faintly at the creature towering over them.

Temari's lips set in a stiff line. She nodded once, and began retreating. Naruto turned, looked back at the sandy being, and then followed her.

* * *

A high-pitched screech of joy split the air, and the Sand Shukaku cackled as it experienced the joys of the real world.

"I'm free, out at last! Hyehyehye!"

And picked up on the unique energy of another tailed demon.

"Kyuubi?!" It drew out the name, the pitch of its voice rising until it hurt the ears of the humans (and the mostly-human Shikamaru, who was thinking something along the lines of 'o shit').

"Bastard, what are you doing? Ooooh, I _see! _And _you_ are sealed up even, more, - _tightly! -_ than _I_ am, aren't you now?" It gestured with one arm, a toothy grin and animated face illustrating its glee at this state of affairs.

Shikamaru was ready to attack again, and he positioned himself to start running for the demon who was his new enemy. The over-loud, deranged and talkative creature was infuriating, he felt a hatred of it and a desire to rip into the sandy flesh with chakra and claws, to cut and stab and rip and rend.

He charged, snarling.

* * *

"He doesn't sleep, at all?"

"_No_, kid."

"And that... thing... is in his mind?"

Temari didn't dignify that with a response.

They watched Shikamaru leap back up, hearing a low growl that turned into a roar. But the fast-moving shape was knocked straight back by a blast of air as the tanuki screamed the jutsu-name in unmistakable joy.

"Shikamaru... doesn't look like he's thinking."

"He's berserk." Temari said flatly over Shukaku's giggling cackle. "And therefore nearly as dangerous to your precious Konoha as his enemy."

"I don't believe that." Naruto said, folding his arms.

The Kyuubi's chakra rose back up to attack levels, catching both their attention. It was nigh-on impossible to ignore, any shinobi within several miles must feel numb as their senses of energy were completely obscured by so much raw and unshaped power, blotting out chakra like white noise at millions of time normal volume.

* * *

Shikamaru charged, screaming. He leapt from side to side as he advanced to dodge the fuuton attacks, then as he jumped he cast nets of youki to catch or deflect the burst of compressed air in his path.

He rose high enough to look straight into the demon's eyes, seeing yellow dots rotate in the pupils. The mouth was half-open, and it drew back into a smirking grin that showed teeth. Shukaku dug one hand into the ground, and threw itself round that point in a crude dodge.

Shikamaru reached the apex of his jump, and as he began the descent he hoped that Naruto and Gaara's sister hadn't been crushed. Then he realised he couldn't see to evade the next fuuton attack.

A missile of chakra and lethally pressurized air smashed him from the side and behind, and he would have screamed from the pain of it if velocity hadn't glued his mouth shut.

Shukaku laughed with gleeful sadism as he smashed into the ground, skidding along.

* * *

Naruto raced towards Shikamaru as the Kyuubi-host carved another trail of destruction through the forest, not too far from them. He ran through the toppled tree-trunks, and Temari reluctantly followed. But his concerns were unfounded. Shikamaru was on his feet and seemingly unhurt as they reached him, although his face was contorted into a snarl. Close up, the layer of chakra over his body hurt the eyes, and it made him look as inhuman as the partially transformed Gaara had been. He didn't acknowledge as the two genin approached.

Shikamaru crouched, poised to start another run at Shukaku. He was growling, so low it was almost inaudible, and the sound made Temari shiver.

Naruto refused to be scared of his friend.

"Shikamaru! You need to make a plan before you charge in blindly!"

Shikamaru blinked and looked at the blond.

"Naruto" His voice was hoarse.

"Yeah," He said in a_ duh_ voice "it's me!"

Shikmaru shook himself. Raised one hand to his face and then turned to face his friend.

"And we need to plan before we attack him-there, so let's – MOVE!"

The demon was facing them, and sand was rising from the floor to encircle Naruto.

Shikamaru picked his friend up bodily, hopped and grabbed Temari by her upper arm, then launched himself and his burdens into the large branches of the nearest undamaged trees. He raced along the path made by these and then put the other two down almost a mile away, two seconds later.

Naruto sat down, Temari hugged herself and leant against a tree, sagging into it. Then she reasserted herself, and stood up straight.

"We need... a plan." Shikamaru said, as if finding it hard to understand the words.

"You're still the team leader, dattebayo." Naruto said, completely serious.

Shikamaru sat cross-legged on the branch, and slowly and carefully placed his hands in his thinking gesture, the points of his sharpened nails meeting their opposites exactly. Despite the sheets of flame-chakra burning off him, his face became calm and focussed.

* * *

Tanuki neiri no jutsu – Sends the user to sleep.

Youki – Demon energy.


	42. delendi

After a few minutes thinking, the fox-host had beaten down his urge to jump at Gaara blindly. Plans... Shikamaru's attention shifted abruptly from his interlocked fingers to Temari.

"Will waking Gaara break the jutsu?"

She looked at him intently, but with no obvious intention of answering. She was scared.

"Co-operating with us is more likely than anything else to keep yourself and Gaara alive." Shikamaru said "I'm the only one of us who can evade Shukaku's attacks reliably, and I will see no reason to get you out of the way if you're not an ally of our team." He nodded at Naruto. Despite the urgency of the situation, he had realised that he needed to establish his identity as a genin of Konoha. He wouldn't let himself be considered an equivalent to Gaara: a dangerous and indiscriminate weapon.

But before thinking about his future, he had to get all four participants in this stupid fight out alive.

"And if we can't stop Gaara because we're dead or we've run away, and he reaches the Hidden Village, he'll face all the shinobi of Konoha. And they could stop Kyuubi, as you can see. They couldn't pull that off again, but your brother is the only gap in the demon's defences. I'd give them a pretty good chance of coming up with a plan to take him out, and him a very poor chance of staying alive through that."

She lowered her head.

"I don't want to kill him." Shikamaru said. He hadn't realised that before it came out of his mouth, but it was true. Gaara was was emotionally crippled, and although Shikamaru was scared of him and resentful towards all he represented, the shadow-user felt sorry for him, and thinking back on it he had ever since walking away from him in the hospital. His aims were to defeat the Shukaku and retrieve Gaara.

"Waking Gaara, will it suppress the Shukaku?"

"Yes" Temari said, and there just might have been a flash of hope in her eyes.

"Will the demon attack you?"

"_Gaara_ would attack me without a second thought, _that_ thing won't hesitate to" She said with a bitter laugh. Both of the Konoha ninja just looked at her.

"Fine." Shikamaru said "I have a plan."

* * *

Temari was not sure if she was doing the right thing. She was committing herself to fight her brother – no, Shukaku. To fight alongside Shikamaru, whom she had definitely misjudged before. He was sitting down and calmly outlining a plan as if he'd had it in mind since the beginning, seemingly oblivious to the chakra that burnt around him. The chakra that was strong enough to blot out Shukaku's energy. 

His face seemed thinner with his hair down, the black marks on his cheeks seemed to move as the flames flickered over them and he spoke. His eyes were made more striking, if anything, by the energy surrounding him, they looked like pools of that crimson chakra, but deeper-coloured and subtle, intelligent.

But he wasn't human. When he looked at her, she hardly knew what to do or say; not through uncertainty, but because the force of the energy running through him swept over her. She wanted to run. It scared her, and more than anything she feared the fact that he could stay so sane and so calm despite the Kyuubi's power.

But she'd agreed to be a part of his plan, so she would.

She didn't have to do much, anyway. She watched as Naruto got a complex seal-card out of his pack (how much junk does he have in it, she wondered) and set it in front of Shikamaru, pointing to bits and getting out a bottle and ink to amend some of it.

Before they could finish that task, they had to leave in a hurry – Shikamaru unceremoniously lifted the other two and made another dangerously fast leap, navigating tree-branches without seeming to notice them. The hand holding her made her skin prickle and sting, though the red chakra didn't burn her clothes. As he set her down, she was tempted to look and see if her skin was burnt, but she watched Naruto and Shikamaru at work instead.

* * *

Shikamaru followed Naruto's directions, resisting the urge to make a sarcastic comment about him becoming a fuuinjutsu expert and how that related to his father. 

He pressed clawed hands over the flame-like symbol that indicated a chakra input/output exchange. Noticing that the curl was the same as the top symbol of the Kyuubi's seal, he focussed on it. He had so much energy it didn't seem to be depleted at all as he channelled youki into it, and it took only three or four seconds before he had put in the maximum amount of energy the seal could hold.

It exploded into a cloud of white smoke, and a partially visible construct of red chakra appeared. An Empty Clone.

Naruto created a regular bunshin, face twisted by the toll this took on his already depleted reserves. But he had mastered the bunshin skill; Shikamaru couldn't have pulled this trick off. It moved back and took the same position as the half-visible other clone, and gained the same aura of red chakra as Shikamaru currently had. The clone of Naruto's eyes were the same shade of red as Shikamaru's.

Put together and directed by Naruto, the two clones could act as one. The plan was a masterpiece.

* * *

The three ninja and the clone took their positions, and Shikamaru, standing in front of the other two figures, lifted one hand and sent youki circling in a blatant challenge. 

Shukaku turned around, hissing in delight.

"Na-ra, you are entertaining! I haven't have so much fun for years!" His voice was strangely modulated, one minute low and sinister, the next cackling like a pantomime villain or high and piercing. The sheer volume of it bent back the trees.

Shikamaru suppressed his chakra as much as he could. This would be the last use of it, he was sure, so he found the right part of his system and cut off the flow. There was enough youki left for him to make this jump, but the clone had more of the Kyuubi's energy stored in it. Shukaku would attack it, thinking it was a badly-disguised fox-host instead of a cleverly-hidden diversion. The shadow-user smiled tightly as his plan began, and started a run-up from one side of Shukaku, clutching his handful of kunai tightly.

* * *

The Shukaku turned to the clone, firing fuuton blasts at it. It leapt aside, and Temari flew out of the tree she'd been perched in, riding her fan awkwardly out of the way. The clone followed her movement with a hunter's grace, youki hissing around it angrily. Then, dismissively, it threw her to one side, then turned and yelled a challenge in Naruto's voice. 

"Deception, is it?!" Shukaku crowed as the clone ran towards it. It drew in air for another attack, raising its arms.

* * *

Shikamaru ran and jumped (a second behind the replication, which attacked Shukaku head-on) and the two red-edged figures flew towards the massive sand demon. Shukaku pounded its stomach and sent chakra-filled wind to destroy the bunshin, and the real Shikamaru threw a brace of kunai. 

The demon turned, sensing the flare of demonic chakra that guided the weapons.

Its attack smashed into the clone.

It raised its hand like it was swatting a fly, attention fixed on the new flare of youki as behind it the clone-construct vanished in two puffs of smoke, one tinged red.

And knocked all but two knives out of the air.

* * *

But Naruto had come up with a fail-safe for the plan. He was under a henge to appear to be a kunai, but since they had no way of knowing how the demon would block, they had tied a hastily braided combination of Naruto's and Shikamaru's hair onto the looped end of the each weapon. A seal linked each piece of hair. 

These acted somewhat like the _haraishin no jutsu._ Naruto had been clumsily trying to emulate it from his father's notes when he'd created the jutsu. It had been a project he'd set himself after they'd learnt kawarimi in school, and he'd asked Shikamaru for technical help on it enough that together the two had been able to remember enough of it to reconstruct it sloppily now, and Naruto had used his knowledge of seals to make it functional. The inefficient technique (they hoped) would allow an individual to move between linked places. It wasn't the same as the_ hiraishin_, and it needed more chakra than any human jounin had invested into each connection. Luckily for them, Shikamaru had been able to provide that – his hair and the seal were the battery that powered the connection, while Naruto's hair made the link specific to him.

So the blond mentally found the link that belonged to the kunai that had dug into sandy flesh, and activated the right seal.

It hurt, a lot, but he found himself sliding down a flat surface of sand. Two massive cavities on either side of him were eyes, there was a furrow below him – the sandy surface was steep enough that if he fell back there he'd fall all the way. He was slipping now! Naruto pulled a knife out of his weapons pouch, dug it in, and yelled as he ran back up.

He could hardly move; the monster swung around and he was thrown back most of the distance he'd climbed. He stopped himself, digging his nails in until they made tiny furrows in the sand and half-moon slivers of it got under his nails. _Don't look down, don't fall. This is our only chance, we've got to take it. Pass all limits!_

And he ran up back, moving on all fours.

Gaara's slumped body was just a little higher up.

His kunai left bites in the sand, and he seemed to be moving so slowly. Gaara's shape got nearer gradually, but he'd stopped looking, his world contracted by pain and determination and clenched muscles and sand. He was – nearly there.

* * *

Shikamaru fell back, dizzy as he realised the reassuringly massive force of the Kyuubi's chakra was gone. The Shukaku was still after him, and he broke into a pointless, stumbling run with no energy at all left to speed it. Jumping between trees was so difficult without chakra, he had to fling himself forward with all his strength and land on his hands and knees, or land belly-flopped on his stomach. Then he had to pick himself back up, knees shaking from hurried recovery, and repeat the process, resisting the urge to look back. 

There was a loud crashing crushing noise, one of wood cracking and trees groaning and snapping. It came from close behind him.

He looked back.

Shukaku had placed one hand down and lowered his face, like a malicious little boy watching a crippled insect try to run.

Shikamaru turned to look into the huge eyes. Then above them.

A bright orange shape was moving against the dull sand, slowly.

Too slowly.

The other hand of the demon reached out to above him, obstructing his view of Naruto, who was creeping towards the red shape of Gaara, and one finger lowered to either side of Shikamaru.

Massive walls of sand, either side of him. He could see the demon's face again, and Naruto climbing the giant brow. Shikamaru made himself look into the yellow-on-black eyes.

The gargantuan fingers were moving slowly together. Shikamaru gathered his strength, and focussed. He started to walk up the tree that he was standing on, slowly and gradually climbing up it. He reached the highest stable branch, still below the top of one finger. He moulded chakra, (thank the Kages, there was a minuscule amount of his own energy left in him) He jumped, and ran up the finger.

And then the demon lifted its hand, and opened its mouth, wide teeth menacing and breath from its speech sending Shikamaru flying.

"You're going to die now, Kyuubi-host. I'll _crush _you!"

* * *

Naruto ran forward. Break your limits, or Shikamaru will die. He was shaking, lactic acid build-up and those kinds of things teachers talk about _actually happening_, he was suffering from lack of chakra - exhaustion and pain; only iron determination stopped him from giving up and letting everyone die. 

That wouldn't happen; Kazama Naruto was going to save the day and he would do it now!

And so he drew his hand back, yelled, although it was lost in the Shukaku's laughter, and punched Gaara.

The sleeping host was smacked backwards, and a crack ran from where he grew from the sand to the eye of the Shukaku.

* * *

Shikamaru was tipped over the edge of the fingers into the palm of the demon's hand, dropping down several times the height of the tallest apartment block in Konoha. He could hardly land the fall, but long training gave his body instructions and he did. He looked up at the walls of hard sand that was slowly moving together. He looked up – the orange spot, further away now, was overlapping with the red one. And a line spread and widened from their position to the demon's right eye. Another one grew in another direction, and more, spreading like cracks in glass or in dried sand as it flakes apart. 

Hope grew in Shikamaru's chest

"Scared, host!? Will you scream for me?"

* * *

Naruto shook Gaara. He'd be too slow to stop the demon unless something drastic happened. He pulled the boy, trying to physically drag him out of the sand holding his legs, like he could pull the plug on the monster. 

But then Shukaku howled, throwing its head back, and Naruto clung to Gaara as his legs left the ground from the sudden movement. What had happened to Shikamaru? He thought, but then he realised the movement had turned into a slide down and his feet were sinking into the sand. And Gaara's head had lifted.

But then Gaara's cold eyes opened, narrowed, and Naruto realised his feet weren't sinking, the sand was rising.

* * *

hiraishin no jutsu - flying thunder god technique. Yondaime's leet speed jutsu. 


	43. The End of the Fic As We Know It

Naruto wasn't sure how he found the strength to execute the shunshin one last time, he only knew that he had to take Gaara out. So he dived through the sand that was slowly compacting and punched the red-head again, then grabbed him around the neck in a strangle-hold.

"It's over." He said, blue eyes lethal.

Gaara stared vacantly at him.

"Give up," The blond said "If I had to hurt you your sister would be sad."

Gaara blinked, slowly. Naruto realised there was no disbelief in that look, just complete incomprehension. Gaara didn't realise that he was anyone's brother, didn't realise there was any kind of familial tie between him and his siblings. The Yondaime's son felt his determination turn to real anger that this injustice, although he wasn't sure who he was angry with.

"_I _never had a family, so I don't see why yours should have to lose you! You keep going on about how you prove your existence by killing, but you _don't need to!_ Temari down there's upset about the idea of your existence ending, isn't that the proof of it? Having no-one who acknowledges you is the same as _being_ no-one, but killing people won't leave anyone to prove you're there! It's the people that _defend_ your existence that show you you're real."

"My... sister." He frowned. "She - validates my existence? No!" And his voice became dangerously flat: "We're not the same, not even similar."

"You have a father in common, don't you?"

"My father ordered me killed, because I threatened his existence."

"Yeah? Well mine died before I could be acknowledged by him, and that sucks too! Get over it, at least you have some important people left to you."

"They. They are not-."

"Temari treats you as_ her_ important person. She loves you, she wanted to save you even though _you_ treat _her_ like she'snot there." Naruto was passionate, and he was angry. "If you think it's because of your shitty past that you haven't got any important people, you're deluding yourself! You just aren't letting anyone near you!"

He raised a hand to touch Gaara's face, and the sand moved to block it. "See? You're deceiving yourself with this sand and your hardened heart, acting like a monster and thinking like a lonely kid. You're running away from the feelings that can hurt you. You're not even _angry_, you're scared."

"Shut up." There was panic rising in Gaara's voice, the sand that had pinned Naruto a moment ago was swirling around the Suna-nin's feet.

"You're_ running away_." Naruto stared at Gaara, watching his face as the other boy's eyes shifted in indecision. The form of Shukaku they stood on was still, and a breeze sent sand rustling across the surface. One of its hands was still holding Shikamaru.

"You're denying the truth of your existence. You may have been born for a certain reason, but if you let others define the purpose of your life, you're _weak._ Weaker than those who don't fight, because you're acting for someone else – you have no purpose of your own, and that makes the thing you claim as your purpose _meaningless._"

Gaara's mouth was part open, he raised a shaking hand to the scar on his forehead. His fingers quivered as they ran over the mark, but there was no madness in his eyes. He whimpered, eyes bright – _was he crying?! _

And the sand that formed the Shukaku started to fall in a massive avalanche.

* * *

Shikamaru was going to be buried alive. In sand. This was not how he wanted to die._ I've survived far too many variations of sand-monster today to let something like this kill me_, he told himself. _That would be embarrassing. _

And so as he fell, he grabbed onto branches. Eventually, by pure chance, he landed flat and face-down on top of one that was wide enough and stable enough not to break under the tons upon tons of sand falling from the sky. He lay on it, pressed by sand, wondering if it would squash him like a pancake. He couldn't open his mouth to inhale, his chest couldn't expand because of the sand's weight. He cowered as he waited for the grains to stop falling. Eventually, the volume of the stuff slowed, so it was a rain of sand rather than a solid sheet of it, and Shikamaru breathed in deeply. At last he rolled onto his back, eyes still squeezed shut. His hair was matted with it, and his clothes were covered.

But he didn't really care – Naruto had done his part, and they'd won!

He opened his eyes with a smile, and saw it was a nice day. Too exhausted to even lift an arm to wipe his sand-covered face, he looked up at the clouds.

* * *

Naruto had held onto Gaara, riding the falling sand like a surfer and grabbing on to a tree-branch before they hit the ground. Unfortunately, he couldn't lift himself up onto it one handed, and he was holding Gaara around the waist with the other arm. 

"Why don't you let me fall, Kazama Naruto?" The boy seemed uncertain, but the cold mask was back up, and as Naruto looked down he realised that part of the Sand-nin's weight was due to the fact the gourd had re-formed on his back. But acknowledging the threat there would just start another cycle of violence.

Naruto looked around, trying to plan his next action. The sand that had collapsed had dissipated, and they were too drained to survive a drop like this without it to land on. The day was still, so they wouldn't get blown down. There were no chakra signals that the Yondaime's son could sense, but then his chakra-sensitivity had dropped (well, Shikamaru's Kyuubi-overloaded energy-level had 'deafened' him, actually), so he wasn't putting much stock in that analysis. But no-one was likely to attack.

Oh, right. Gaara had asked a question, even though there had been no inflection in his speech to advertise it.

"I'm not letting you fall because you're as drained as I am, and we're too high to survive a straight drop." Naruto replied, wondering why no-one from Sand had any manners. He wasn't feeling tolerant; it was something to do with the way he was a kilometre high and hanging one-handed from a lonely branch.

"I am an enemy of your village."

Temari had said that, too. They didn't understand kindness very well, did they?

"The people who sent you here are our enemies. But you and Temari? You look like victims of them to me. Besides, from what I could see, you didn't hurt anyone from Leaf, you were just stalking Shikamaru. And that was because you were lonely and fixated on the idea of someone else like you. And you were hurt when he rejected you... but don't worry, Shikamaru's just weird like that. He hates to let people know he actually does care about them."

"I tried to kill him."

"You're_ lonely" _Naruto corrected. "You were trying to get him to acknowledge you because no-one has ever looked at you with the same eyes you have, and you wanted an equal. But you don't need an equal when your sister's here, because if you acknowledge her you'll find out she's always noticed you. Hold on to me so I can get up onto this branch, my arm hurts."

Very slowly, Gaara did so.

Naruto strained, and pulled himself up so Gaara could grab onto the branch. After some awkward shifting, they both seated themselves on it, Naruto looking at the jinchuuriki's black-rimmed eyes.

He tried not to be overly forward and rude, but he wasn't good at keeping quiet. It was one thing expressing complex emotion, but Gaara was just plain interesting. And now he wasn't in danger of death by sand or causing emotional distress, he wanted to talk.

"Can you really never sleep?"

Gaara blinked, and frowned. It looked odd without eyebrows.

"Why don't you have eyebrows? Shikamaru has eyebrows."

Gaara stared at Naruto like the blond was the strange one, not him.

Naruto looked concerned; he didn't want to offend Gaara.

A silence, they both looked at the other.

"What?" Naruto eventually said, unnerved by Gaara's scrutiny.

"Why are you treating me like this? It's pointless, and I'm not a friend."

Naruto shrugged. "You're interesting. Besides, Shikamaru's my friend and he's a demon-host-type-person, so why shouldn't you be a friend?"

There was another silence. Gaara was looking down, holding his hands together because he didn't want Kazama Naruto to see they were unsteady. _Scared, lonely, weak._ How could he see all these things, how could those blue eyes be so powerful? How could he say all that, tear Gaara's reason for existence down, and then say friend?

Compassion. Yashamaru had once said love healed wounds, and Gaara had wanted to love himself and be self-sufficient, since no-one would ever love him. He wasn't being offered love, but... maybe Kazama Naruto could understand both his mind and his sister's, and maybe Temari could be his important person. Maybe he could reach out to Kankuro. He had been shown that he didn't love himself, that he wasn't self-sufficient. He had been told he was scared, not independent but self-deceiving. He couldn't love himself, if he wanted to be loved or to be important to people, he had to reach for it.

He thought hard. Naruto was leant back, eyes shut and seemingly at rest despite Gaara's dangerous presence. Kazama Naruto had offered him a place to start, suggested friendship to him. Friendship with him.

"No, I can't sleep."

"Huh?"

"I can never sleep. And I don't think I've ever had eyebrows, either."

Naruto looked happy to get a response, but he just made a gesture with his eyes Gaara didn't understand, rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and murmured 'weird' inoffensively.

Gaara didn't know what to do about friendship. But Naruto didn't really seem to mind.

* * *

Temari had run away as the two Leaf ninja attacked Shukaku, but she had stopped. She wasn't sure whether she felt guilty about leaving Gaara, who was both her little brother and her responsibility as the _de facto_ leader of the Sand genin team, or about leaving Naruto, whose words had both cut her and inspired her. Either way, she found herself hunting for the three boys instead of fleeing. She found Shikamaru first, lying flat on a branch as if laid out for a funeral. She felt truly scared for the unnaturally still demon-host, and leapt to his side so fast her partially-healed ankle protested. 

"Nara!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyeballs to watch her face, head staying dead still. It was eerie, actually – his skin was pale, his eyes were red, and his hair looked black. His lips moved into something that could have been a smile, revealing pointed incisors. But he raised an eyebrow at her in greeting, and the familiar – Kankuro-like - gesture humanised him in her view. And he was just-!

"You're. Lying here? Staring at the sky?!" She said in dangerous disbelief. She smashed him over the head with her fan, embarrassed at her earlier concern. _Lazy Leaf bastard!_

He didn't dodge, he hadn't even looked at the weapon as it descended towards him.

She growled in frustration and grabbed his arm, hauling him up.

"Let's find Naruto and Gaara. Don't you feel _any_ need to help your team-mate?"

But he slipped as they jumped and fell backwards, enough that he would have missed the target branch if she hadn't grabbed him. When she pulled him back up, he dropped onto his knees, one hand coming forward just in time to stop his face hitting the ground.

Okay, now she bad about that smack with the fan.

"Are you okay?"

"Drained." He said shortly. Yeah, she realised, his skin was bloodless, it hadn't been that colour before. His shirt had dark patches of dried blood on it. Of course he'd be suffering now, he'd exhausted far more chakra than he actually had.

Temari didn't want to look for the other two alone – Gaara would be conscious, since Shukaku was no longer present. She didn't want to see him, even though it was her duty. Feeling only slightly guilty of ulterior motives, she lowered herself onto the branch beside him.

"Are you hurt?"

He looked up at her past the arms he'd crossed over his knees. His red eyes were alert, but now she could look past that shocking colour – so blood-like – she could read unease in them.

"I was before, but I seem to have healed. Now I have no chakra surplus I feel faint and can't move at normal speed." He sat up a bit straighter, and ran one finger over his teeth. "It's aggravating that I still look like this but don't actually keep any useful traits."

She examined him again: from his body language and attitude, the change wasn't just physical. But parts were - he'd lost his sandals at some point, and up close she could see his hands and feet both had long-nailed digits, his toes were elongated and spread; his eyes were red, his teeth larger than previously and pointed, his whisker-marks black and striking. His posture was graceful like a practised fighter's, and his eyes tracked her unashamedly. His eyelids were heavy over his eyes, though, so exhaustion was probably stopping him noticing how he'd changed mentally.

She felt regret that he was different now from the soft genin she'd slapped for his innocence, but then she thought of his unflinching assertion that he was not like Gaara, and how he'd left it to her to interpret that, not offering any help. She remembered his impassivity and how Gaara had raged about him. No, in retrospect, it was plausible that the mental change he'd undergone during this encounter hadn't been nearly so drastic as it seemed.

"I'm fine, Temari" He said in vague annoyance at her continued look, rolling his eyes and frowning at her. "It's troublesome to look like this, but we're ninja and even a lazy genin like me does what's necessary. Fuss over your brother instead, _he _needs attention."

And he stretched out, clawed fingers splaying as he reached up with them and arced his back. His feet curled around the underside of the branch, and he lowered himself backwards down onto it in one movement, cushioning his head in his hands before relaxing his legs. He rested supine on the branch, eyes softening and face losing tension immediately as he watched the sky.

Temari glanced at him, then looked away through the trees. In Suna, it was rarely outright acknowledged that Gaara was hers and Kankuro's brother, but the two Leaf ninja had reminded her of it. That and their treatment of Gaara as someone to – save! - made her determined to approach him. Shikamaru was a jinchuuriki – not an innocent in comparison to Gaara, no. The two of them weren't different extremes, but two separate individuals, both human and troubled.

She would treat Gaara like a human.

* * *

When Temari heard Naruto's voice and two people approaching, she jumped away from the resting jinchuuriki to investigate – if the other was Leaf, she'd need to leave. She half-hoped it was Gaara the blond was directing his cheerful conversation at, but it seemed ludicrous. When the flat voice of the Kazekage's youngest son answered him, she let the surprise show on her face, and slowly her shocked look widened into a grin. She returned to Shikamaru's side, showing solidarity by the gesture. Naruto probably wouldn't notice, and Gaara wouldn't care, but she had been trained in diplomacy well. She'd do it anyway, because she was glad she'd come back to stand by the Kyuubi-host. 

Naruto grinned triumphantly, calling: "Temari, our plan was a total success!"

He jumped over to sit by Shikamaru, poking the fox-boy in the side. He said mournfully 'he's asleep', then watched the two sand siblings. Temari had stood to greet Gaara, and he looked at her seriously.

Gaara watched Temari stand and come towards him. They watched each other, until she spoke.

"Shall we go and rescue Kankuro? He got himself captured, apparently."

Her voice was nervous, but it was a start.

* * *


	44. Partiality

Shikamaru awoke in a dark room, on a hospital bed. The room smelt of cigarette smoke, both old and new, and he could hear slow, relaxed breathing. As he opened his eyes a crack he confirmed the assumption he'd made from those hints: Asuma was sitting in a chair in the corner. He felt safe in his sensei's company, despite his altered form, so he sat up. His fingers were still clawed, a bracelet of paper with a seal painted on it was on one wrist, and the floor around the bed was covered in more patterns. A machine of some kind with more black designs was beside him. Shikamaru thought of something and looked more closely: his bed was the only one in the room, the door was heavy, and the window had a strong bar over it. The view from it confirmed what he suspected: this wasn't the hospital. 

"You're awake." Asuma said. He moved his chair across (it raised sparks from the black sigils), and smiled at his student. He looked honestly relieved, but there were hints of other emotions there too.

"How long was I out for?" Shikamaru asked, scratching the back of his head. His hair was still loose, and it was matted with dried blood.

"This is the fourth day."

"And where am I?"

"Well, I was hoping to save this conversation for later, but... As you can see, you're not in Konoha General Hospital." Asuma's mouth twisted in distaste, and when he continued it was with suppressed anger: "This is part of a deserted research lab once used by Orochimaru. It was shut down, but the hospital stores equipment here so when the council decided it was too dangerous to keep in the village, they grabbed you and took you over here so they could make informed guesses as to whether you'd wake up like - ...well, you can guess what they were scared of."

Shikamaru didn't wince at the thought, but it took effort for him to hold himself still. He was partly disgusted and angry, partly hurt that his fears had been vindicated.

"The chakra flares sent up weren't exactly reassuring." Asuma said neutrally. The jounin settled back in his seat, waving his cigarette in emphasis before taking a deep drag on it. "The nasty truth is, you stayed out this long because they were drugging you. They didn't tell anyone where you were sent, or anything about your status. If Kazama hadn't rounded up your friends and family and got me to investigate under my authority as your jounin-sensei, it's likely... Well. You can extrapolate that for yourself."

"Sandaime-sama allowed this?"

Asuma looked down, visibly saddened.

Shikamaru couldn't process what that look meant for a minute, and he said nothing.

"He was - assassinated, by-" Asuma said thickly, then stopped and shook his head, then steeled himself to speak. But Shikamaru spoke first.

"By the Sound leader who had taken the place of the Kazekage?"

"As always, remarkable analysis;" the tone was sarcastic, but it turned to fondness: "I should have expected it of you, I suppose."

"I didn't see _this _coming." Shikamaru knew he should have said something else, condolences, but he didn't.

Asuma ignored the lack of kind words. He got up, took another deep toke of his cigarette, and stubbed it out. Matter-of-factly, he walked over to the window, and destroyed the bar across it with a single confident strike of his_ hien _attack. He then removed the ruined bar and opened the window, gesturing for Shikamaru to get up.

"Now are you okay to jump down there?"

The shadow-nin got off the bed and stretched. He was wearing hospital-issue clothes, and the skin that was visible had been washed clean of most but not all the blood. The seals sparked madly where he touched them, but at Asuma's gesture he got up. His sensei deactivated them through a combination of vandalism and 'kai' skills, and Shikamaru joined him at the window.

"You go first, I'll stay and - sign you out." His voice was very serious.

"Are- is that okay? Should I avoid the village?"

"That might be wise, just for the time being. There's a lot of people worried about you, though. Don't keep them waiting."

The jounin turned and walked out of the door. Shikamaru looked out of the window, before jumping from it in a smooth motion.

* * *

He reached the Nara fields by running through the forest, but when he got to his cloud-watching spot, he was surprised. 

Naruto lay there.

Shikamaru approached, slowly. He wasn't sure he wanted to have a conversation with his friend just yet, he was tired, he wanted to be calm and stare at the sky, not weigh himself down with melodrama and emotion.

Naruto got up, fast, as if reacting to a threat.

Shikamaru held out his hands in a peaceful gesture, but the blond just threw himself forward and hugged his friend.

"Shouldn't go missing, you bastard. We were worried, dammit."

Naruto had moved so suddenly Shikamaru hadn't had time to react, and the surprised shadow-nin just stood there blankly for a second, clawed hands half-raised from their aborted reaction to sudden movement. Then Naruto moved away as quickly as he'd advanced, and laughed and flopped down onto the grass, muttering that he was still pissed off but not specifying at what.

Shikamaru thought vaguely: 'I've just been glomped. By another guy.'

Then he flopped down onto the grass beside Naruto, laughing quietly.

"You know," Naruto said in a strange tone, "We were all worried about you, stupid genius. Me and Ino and Chouji got everyone together to go shout at the council for you. I even went and talked to your mom and sister, and they're freaking scary, I wouldn't do that for just anyone. Heh. I can see where your whole troublesome thing about women comes from. But yeah, even Kakashi-sensei came (not even very late!) and ero-sennin. But your sister said something to him and he spent the whole time going as spastic as his frogs with some perverted idea he got from her... Yeah, that was weird. But anyways, you're back now, so you can pay us all back by buying ramen, right?!"

"Too troublesome."

Naruto rolled over to stick his face in Shikamaru's and glared at him, trying to look angry but failing.

Shikamaru bared his teeth and growled.

"Gyah!! It's horrible!" Naruto leapt back, then fell over laughing as Shikamaru looked worried he really had scared his friend.

The shadow-nin gave Naruto a not-amused look and turned his attention back to the sky, silently pleased.

* * *

"Shikamaru?" 

"Yeah?"

"It's not your fault. None of it."

* * *

Ino, Chouji and Rumiko had seen a roughly Shikamaru-shaped being jumping between the trees, and before long they came to Konoha's number one cloud-watching location to investigate. They found two young ninja staring at the sky. 

"Oh my god!" Ino cried dramatically "Shikamaru's corrupted Naruto into slacking!"

Shikamaru sat up, subtly shifting his hair over his face. Ino wouldn't stand for this, and she scooted over to his side with narrowed eyes.

"That look is attractive only when you have clean, styled hair. You'd need an inch off the ends, layers at the back - maybe gelled?"

He made some kind of sound, one that clearly indicated he found her troublesome.

"Seriously, get that hair out of your eyes." She said briskly.

He had no choice. Shikamaru lifted one clawed hand and brushed back his untidy mop of hair.

"Huuh. You haven't been hiding out in the woods for three days stressing about this, have you?" Ino asked.

"Tch, no. I was unconscious."

Chouji cleared his throat, started to say something, then stopped.

"Your eyes are pretty like that" Rumiko said. Ino said something quietly, and both girls laughed. Naruto, Chouji and Shikamaru exchanged looks of unease, and Shikamaru realised with a surge of joy that neither his team-mates nor his sister were concerned about his changed appearance.

They spent a peaceful time in the field, Naruto narrating his confrontation with Gaara on top of the Shukaku's head and Shikamaru giving the others some information on where he'd awoken (but cutting down on the facts, he didn't want them to realise just how ostracised he would be now; he didn't want to realise it himself). The others filled him in on the invasion of Konoha and its aftermath, the telling of which was interrupted by his sister departing with the command that he should go home and speak to his parents soon. Naruto left to train with Sasuke not long later, and Team Ten was left in the grass, lying on their backs in a rare state of content.

"Shikamaru?" Chouji drew his friend's attention down from the sky, "You don't... regret doing whatever you did?"

Shikamaru thought seriously about it. At the start of the month, he might well have, but now he had a different perspective. The people whose opinions he valued knew about the Kyuubi, and (with the exception of his father), were unconcerned by it. They knew he knew, there would be no reason to hide his appearance or deny the cause of it. It would be majorly troublesome to have to deal with the probable disapproval and hostility of the other citizens of Konoha, but that had been an inevitable consequence of doing what he'd done. And the fact he and Naruto had defeated Gaara – because it wasn't really just about saving Naruto, even if that had been the impetus behind his decision, it had been about carrying out his mission and saving Gaara from the Shukaku – meant he wouldn't resent this change in his appearance. Besides, running through the forest had seemed easier, he could sense things clearly, hear better and most likely fight better.

He thought back on his thoughts, and realised he'd given in to the shinobi lifestyle. But that was okay, it was past time to move on from his indifference.

"Not at all, Chouji."

* * *

_Fin_

See my profile for the link to my photobucket account, where there are scribbled drawings based on this fic.


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